Autonomous vehicle refueling

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for autonomous vehicle recharging or refueling are disclosed. Autonomous vehicles may be automatically refueled by routing the vehicles to available fueling stations when not in operation, according to methods described herein. A fuel level within a tank of an autonomous vehicle may be monitored until it reaches a refueling threshold, at which point an on-board computer may generate a predicted use profile for the vehicle. Based upon the predicted use profile, a time and location for the vehicle to refuel the vehicle may be determined. In some embodiments, the vehicle may be controlled to automatically travel to a fueling station, refill a fuel tank, and return to its starting location in order to refuel when not in use.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/874,205, entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Refueling”, filed May 14, 2020, which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/976,990, entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Refueling,” filed May 11, 2018, which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/413,796, entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Refueling,” filed Jan. 24, 2017, which is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/409,220, entitled “Autonomous Electric Vehicle Recharging,” filed on Jan. 18, 2017, which claims priority to and the benefit of the filing date of the following applications: (1) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/286,017 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Routing, Maintenance, & Fault Determination,” filed on Jan. 22, 2016; (2) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/287,659 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Technology,” filed on Jan. 27, 2016; (3) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/302,990 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Routing,” filed on Mar. 3, 2016; (4) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/303,500 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Routing,” filed on Mar. 4, 2016; (5) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/312,109 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Routing,” filed on Mar. 23, 2016; (6) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/349,884 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Component and System Assessment,” filed on Jun. 14, 2016; (7) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/351,559 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Component and System Assessment,” filed on Jun. 17, 2016; (8) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/373,084 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Communications,” filed on Aug. 10, 2016; (9) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/376,044 entitled “Autonomous Operation Expansion through Caravans,” filed on Aug. 17, 2016; (10) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/380,686 entitled “Autonomous Operation Expansion through Caravans,” filed on Aug. 29, 2016; (11) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/381,848 entitled “System and Method for Autonomous Vehicle Sharing Using Facial Recognition,” filed on Aug. 31, 2016; (12) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/406,595 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Action Communications,” filed on Oct. 11, 2016; (13) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/406,600 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Path Coordination,” filed on Oct. 11, 2016; (14) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/406,605 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Signal Control,” filed on Oct. 11, 2016; (15) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/406,611 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Application,” filed on Oct. 11, 2016; (16) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/415,668 entitled “Method and System for Enhancing the Functionality of a Vehicle,” filed on Nov. 1, 2016; (17) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/415,672 entitled “Method and System for Repairing a Malfunctioning Autonomous Vehicle,” filed on Nov. 1, 2016; (18) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/415,673 entitled “System and Method for Autonomous Vehicle Sharing Using Facial Recognition,” filed on Nov. 1, 2016; (19) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/415,678 entitled “System and Method for Autonomous Vehicle Ride Sharing Using Facial Recognition,” filed on Nov. 1, 2016; (20) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/418,988 entitled “Virtual Testing of Autonomous Vehicle Control System,” filed on Nov. 8, 2016; (21) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/418,999 entitled “Detecting and Responding to Autonomous Vehicle Collisions,” filed on Nov. 8, 2016; (22) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/419,002 entitled “Automatic Repair on Autonomous Vehicles,” filed on Nov. 8, 2016; (23) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/419,009 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Component Malfunction Impact Assessment,” filed on Nov. 8, 2016; (24) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/419,017 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Sensor Malfunction Detection,” filed on Nov. 8, 2016; (25) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/419,023 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Damage and Salvage Assessment,” filed on Nov. 8, 2016; (26) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/424,078 entitled “Systems and Methods for Sensor Monitoring,” filed Nov. 18, 2016; (27) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/424,093 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Sensor Malfunction Detection,” filed on Nov. 18, 2016; (28) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/428,843 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Control,” filed on Dec. 1, 2016; (29) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/430,215 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Environment and Component Monitoring,” filed on Dec. 5, 2016; (30) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/434,355 entitled “Virtual Testing of Autonomous Environment Control System,” filed Dec. 14, 2016; (31) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/434,359 entitled “Detecting and Responding to Autonomous Environment Incidents,” filed Dec. 14, 2016; (32) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/434,361 entitled “Component Damage and Salvage Assessment,” filed Dec. 14, 2016; (33) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/434,365 entitled “Sensor Malfunction Detection,” filed Dec. 14, 2016; (34) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/434,368 entitled “Component Malfunction Impact Assessment,” filed Dec. 14, 2016; and (35) provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/434,370 entitled “Automatic Repair of Autonomous Components,” filed Dec. 14, 2016, the entire contents of which are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference.

Additionally, the present application is related to the following U.S. patent applications: (1) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,143 entitled “Autonomous Operation Suitability Assessment and Mapping,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,146 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Routing,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (3) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,149 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Routing During Emergencies,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (4) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,159 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Trip Routing,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (5) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,163 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Parking,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (6) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,167 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Retrieval,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (7) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,092 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Action Communications,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (8) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,099 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Path Coordination,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (9) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,107 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Signal Control,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (10) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,115 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Application,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (11) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,136 entitled “Method and System for Enhancing the Functionality of a Vehicle,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (12) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,180 entitled “Method and System for Repairing a Malfunctioning Autonomous Vehicle,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (13) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,148 entitled “System and Method for Autonomous Vehicle Sharing Using Facial Recognition,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (14) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,198 entitled “System and Method for Autonomous Vehicle Ride Sharing Using Facial Recognition,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (15) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,215 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Sensor Malfunction Detection,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (16) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,248 entitled “Sensor Malfunction Detection,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (17) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,271 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Component Malfunction Impact Assessment,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (18) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,305 entitled “Component Malfunction Impact Assessment,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (19) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,318 entitled “Automatic Repair of Autonomous Vehicles,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (20) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,336 entitled “Automatic Repair of Autonomous Components,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (21) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,340 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Damage and Salvage Assessment,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (22) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,349 entitled “Component Damage and Salvage Assessment,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (23) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,359 entitled “Detecting and Responding to Autonomous Vehicle Collisions,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (24) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,371 entitled “Detecting and Responding to Autonomous Environment Incidents,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (25) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,445 entitled “Virtual Testing of Autonomous Vehicle Control System,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (26) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,473 entitled “Virtual Testing of Autonomous Environment Control System,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (27) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,213 entitled “Coordinated Autonomous Vehicle Automatic Area Scanning,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (28) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,228 entitled “Operator-Specific Configuration of Autonomous Vehicle Operation,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (29) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,236 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Operation Adjustment Based Upon Route,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (30) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,239 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Component Maintenance and Repair,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; (31) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/409,243 entitled “Anomalous Condition Detection and Response for Autonomous Vehicles,” filed Jan. 18, 2017; and (32) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/908,060 entitled “Autonomous Vehicle Application,” filed Feb. 28, 2018.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle control, including data analysis, route determination, and automatic adjustment of autonomous operation features.

BACKGROUND

Vehicles are typically operated by a human vehicle operator who controls both steering and motive controls. Operator error, inattention, inexperience, misuse, or distraction leads to many vehicle collisions each year, resulting in injury and damage. Autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles augment vehicle operators' information or replace vehicle operators' control commands to operate the vehicle, in whole or part, with computer systems based upon information from sensors within, or attached to, the vehicle. Such vehicles may be operated with or without passengers, thus requiring different means of control than traditional vehicles. Such vehicles also may include a plurality of advanced sensors, capable of providing significantly more data (both in type and quantity) than is available even from GPS navigation assistance systems installed in traditional vehicles.

Ensuring safe operation of such autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles is of the utmost importance because the automated systems of these vehicles may not function properly in all environments. Although autonomous operation may be safer than manual operation under ordinary driving conditions, unusual or irregular environmental conditions may significantly impair the functioning of the autonomous operation features controlling the autonomous vehicle. Under some conditions, autonomous operation may become impractical or excessively dangerous. As an example, fog or heavy rain may greatly reduce the ability of autonomous operation features to safely control the vehicle. Additionally, damage or other impairment of sensors or other components of autonomous systems may significantly increase the risks associated with autonomous operation. Such conditions may change frequently, thereby changing the safety of autonomous vehicle operation.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present embodiments may be related to autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle operation, including driverless operation of fully autonomous vehicles. The embodiments described herein relate particularly to various aspects of route determination and navigation of autonomous vehicles. This may include determining suitability of roads or road segments for varying levels of autonomous operation, which may include generating maps indicating roadway suitability for autonomous operation. This may further include route planning, adjustment, or optimization, including risk management by avoidance of road segments associated with high risk levels for vehicle accidents involving autonomous vehicles. This may yet further include autonomous route generation and/or implementation in emergency or non-emergency situations. Yet further embodiments may be related to parking autonomous vehicles and retrieving parked autonomous vehicles, which may similarly involve autonomous route determination and/or vehicle control.

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for automatically recharging an autonomous electric vehicle may be provided. The method may include (1) detecting charge information associated with a charge level of a battery of the autonomous electric vehicle; (2) determining the charge level of the battery based upon the charge information; (3) generating a predicted use profile for the autonomous electric vehicle based upon prior vehicle use data; (4) determining a time and a location at which to charge the battery based upon the charge level and the predicted use profile; (5) controlling the autonomous electric vehicle to travel fully autonomously to the determined location at the determined time; (6) causing the battery of the autonomous electric vehicle to charge at the location; (7) determining a return location for the vehicle based upon the predicted use profile; and/or (8) controlling the autonomous electric vehicle to travel fully autonomously to the return location. The return location may be determined based upon the predicted use profile and is distinct from a prior location from which the autonomous electric vehicle travels to the location at which to charge the battery. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, the method may determine the charge information when the autonomous electric vehicle is not in use, in which case the determined time may be a current time at which the time and location are determined. The method may further include determining that the charge level is below a maximum recharging threshold, in which case the time and location may be determined when the charge level is below the maximum recharging threshold. The predicted use profile may indicate a next predicted use of the autonomous electric vehicle, in which case the time and location may be determined when sufficient time exists to recharge the battery before the next predicted use. The predicted use profile may indicate a plurality of use periods and use locations over at least one day.

The location at which to charge the battery may be associated with a charging station selected from a plurality of charging stations based at least in part upon availability of the selected charging station. The method may further comprise identifying a current location of the autonomous electric vehicle using a geolocation component within the autonomous electric vehicle and identifying one or more charging stations in an area surrounding the current location from a database including location data for a plurality of charging stations. The location at which to charge the battery may be selected from the location data associated with the one or more charging stations based at least in part upon distance from the current location. In further embodiments, the method may include accessing map data containing map information regarding a plurality of road segments, which map information may include location data associated with each road segment and an indication of suitability for autonomous operation feature use associated with each road segment. A route consisting of one or more road segments may be identified from the plurality of road segments between the current location and the location at which to charge the battery. The autonomous electric vehicle may then be controlled to travel fully autonomously to the determined location by controlling the autonomous electric vehicle along the identified route.

In some embodiments, the charge information may be determined when the autonomous electric vehicle is in use. In such instances, the predicted use profile may include one or more predicted breaks in vehicle operation, each predicted break being associated with a break time and a break location. The time and location may then be determined based upon the one or more predicted breaks.

Systems or computer-readable media storing instructions for implementing all or part of the system described above may also be provided in some aspects. Systems for implementing such methods may include one or more of the following: a mobile computing device, an on-board computer, a remote server, one or more sensors, one or more communication modules configured to communicate wirelessly via radio links, radio frequency links, and/or wireless communication channels, and/or one or more program memories coupled to one or more processors of the mobile computing device, on-board computer, or remote server. Such program memories may store instructions to cause the one or more processors to implement part or all of the method described above. Additional or alternative features described herein below may be included in some aspects.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present embodiments may be capable of other and different embodiments, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

The figures described below depict various aspects of the applications, methods, and systems disclosed herein. It should be understood that each figure depicts an embodiment of a particular aspect of the disclosed applications, systems and methods, and that each of the figures is intended to accord with a possible embodiment thereof. Furthermore, wherever possible, the following description refers to the reference numerals included in the following figures, in which features depicted in multiple figures are designated with consistent reference numerals.

FIG. 1A illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary autonomous vehicle data system for autonomous vehicle operation, monitoring, and related functions;

FIG. 1B illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary autonomous vehicle monitoring system, showing a plurality of vehicles and smart infrastructure components;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary on-board computer or mobile device;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary autonomous vehicle operation method;

FIGS. 4A-B illustrate flow diagrams of exemplary autonomous vehicle operation monitoring methods for obtaining and recording information during vehicle operation;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary autonomous operation suitability mapping method for determining the suitability of various locations for autonomous and/or semi-autonomous operation of vehicles;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary autonomous vehicle routing method for determining a route between predetermined locations to provide autonomous vehicle navigation support;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary automatic usage optimization method for monitoring and adjusting autonomous operation feature usage levels of a vehicle;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary manual vehicle control restriction method for limiting manual control of a vehicle;

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary automatic refueling or recharging method for fully autonomous vehicles; and

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary passive searching method for automatically searching an area for vehicles, people, or other items using sensor data from a plurality of vehicles.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The systems and methods disclosed herein generally relate to collecting, communicating, evaluating, predicting, and/or utilizing data associated with autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features for controlling a vehicle. The autonomous operation features may take full control of the vehicle under certain conditions, viz. fully autonomous operation, or the autonomous operation features may assist the vehicle operator in operating the vehicle, viz. partially autonomous operation. Fully autonomous operation features may include systems within the vehicle that pilot the vehicle to a destination with or without a vehicle operator present (e.g., an operating system for a driverless car). Partially autonomous operation features may assist the vehicle operator in limited ways (e.g., automatic braking or collision avoidance systems). Fully or partially autonomous operation features may perform specific functions to control or assist in controlling some aspect of vehicle operation, or such features may manage or control other autonomous operation features. For example, a vehicle operating system may control numerous subsystems that each fully or partially controls aspects of vehicle operation.

Optimal route planning for fully or partially autonomous vehicles may be provided using the systems and methods described herein. A user may input an origin and a destination (e.g., A and B locations), whether they want to drive fully autonomous or take the fastest route, and/or whether they will need to park the vehicle nearby or close to the destination. Routes may be optimized for private passengers based upon road safety for autonomous vehicles (e.g., predetermined “safe for autonomous vehicle” roads), whether or not the roads allow autonomous vehicles, or other factors (e.g., routes with the least manual intervention required, fastest routes, etc.). Alerts may be provided or generated when the autonomous vehicle is approaching an area or road where manual intervention may be needed. Optimal routes may also be determined for carpooling or vehicle sharing, delivery or other commercial use, emergency response (e.g., a “self-driving to hospital” mode), non-driving passenger pick-up and drop-off (e.g., children, elderly, etc.), autonomous parking and retrieval, or other purposes. In some embodiments, vehicle-infrastructure technology may be used and/or collect data to develop a most efficient/safest route. The presence of smart stoplights, railroad crossings, and other infrastructure may be mapped, and routes may be optimized to include traveling by the most incidences of smart infrastructure.

In addition to information regarding the position or movement of a vehicle, autonomous operation features may collect and utilize other information, such as data about other vehicles or control decisions of the vehicle. Such additional information may be used to improve vehicle operation, route the vehicle to a destination, warn of component malfunctions, advise others of potential hazards, or for other purposes described herein. Information may be collected, assessed, and/or shared via applications installed and executing on computing devices associated with various vehicles or vehicle operators, such as on-board computers of vehicles or smartphones of vehicle operators. By using computer applications to obtain data, the additional information generated by autonomous vehicles or features may be used to assess the autonomous features themselves while in operation or to provide pertinent information to non-autonomous vehicles through an electronic communication network. These and other advantages are further described below.

Autonomous operation features utilize data not available to a human operator, respond to conditions in the vehicle operating environment faster than human operators, and do not suffer fatigue or distraction. Thus, the autonomous operation features may also significantly affect various risks associated with operating a vehicle. Moreover, combinations of autonomous operation features may further affect operating risks due to synergies or conflicts between features. To account for these effects on risk, some embodiments evaluate the quality of each autonomous operation feature and/or combination of features. This may be accomplished by testing the features and combinations in controlled environments, as well as analyzing the effectiveness of the features in the ordinary course of vehicle operation. New autonomous operation features may be evaluated based upon controlled testing and/or estimating ordinary-course performance based upon data regarding other similar features for which ordinary-course performance is known.

Some autonomous operation features may be adapted for use under particular conditions, such as city driving or highway driving. Additionally, the vehicle operator may be able to configure settings relating to the features or may enable or disable the features at will. Therefore, some embodiments monitor use of the autonomous operation features, which may include the settings or levels of feature use during vehicle operation. Information obtained by monitoring feature usage may be used to determine risk levels associated with vehicle operation, either generally or in relation to a vehicle operator. In such situations, total risk may be determined by a weighted combination of the risk levels associated with operation while autonomous operation features are enabled (with relevant settings) and the risk levels associated with operation while autonomous operation features are disabled. For fully autonomous vehicles, settings or configurations relating to vehicle operation may be monitored and used in determining vehicle operating risk.

In some embodiments, information regarding the risks associated with vehicle operation with and without the autonomous operation features may be used to determine risk categories or premiums for a vehicle insurance policy covering a vehicle with autonomous operation features, as described elsewhere herein. Risk category or price may be determined based upon factors relating to the evaluated effectiveness of the autonomous vehicle features. The risk or price determination may also include traditional factors, such as location, vehicle type, and level of vehicle use. For fully autonomous vehicles, factors relating to vehicle operators may be excluded entirely. For partially autonomous vehicles, factors relating to vehicle operators may be reduced in proportion to the evaluated effectiveness and monitored usage levels of the autonomous operation features. For vehicles with autonomous communication features that obtain information from external sources (e.g., other vehicles or infrastructure), the risk level and/or price determination may also include an assessment of the availability of external sources of information. Location and/or timing of vehicle use may thus be monitored and/or weighted to determine the risk associated with operation of the vehicle.

Exemplary Autonomous Vehicle Operation System

FIG. 1A illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary autonomous vehicle data system 100 on which the exemplary methods described herein may be implemented. The high-level architecture includes both hardware and software applications, as well as various data communications channels for communicating data between the various hardware and software components. The autonomous vehicle data system 100 may be roughly divided into front-end components 102 and back-end components 104. The front-end components 102 may obtain information regarding a vehicle 108 (e.g., a car, truck, motorcycle, etc.) and the surrounding environment. An on-board computer 114 may utilize this information to operate the vehicle 108 according to an autonomous operation feature or to assist the vehicle operator in operating the vehicle 108. To monitor the vehicle 108, the front-end components 102 may include one or more sensors 120 installed within the vehicle 108 that may communicate with the on-board computer 114. The front-end components 102 may further process the sensor data using the on-board computer 114 or a mobile device 110 (e.g., a smart phone, a tablet computer, a special purpose computing device, smart watch, wearable electronics, etc.) to determine when the vehicle is in operation and information regarding the vehicle.

In some embodiments of the system 100, the front-end components 102 may communicate with the back-end components 104 via a network 130. Either the on-board computer 114 or the mobile device 110 may communicate with the back-end components 104 via the network 130 to allow the back-end components 104 to record information regarding vehicle usage. The back-end components 104 may use one or more servers 140 to receive data from the front-end components 102, store the received data, process the received data, and/or communicate information associated with the received or processed data.

The front-end components 102 may be disposed within or communicatively connected to one or more on-board computers 114, which may be permanently or removably installed in the vehicle 108. The on-board computer 114 may interface with the one or more sensors 120 within the vehicle 108 (e.g., a digital camera, a LIDAR sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, an ignition sensor, an odometer, a system clock, a speedometer, a tachometer, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass, a geolocation unit, radar unit, etc.), which sensors may also be incorporated within or connected to the on-board computer 114.

The front end components 102 may further include a communication component 122 to transmit information to and receive information from external sources, including other vehicles, infrastructure, or the back-end components 104. In some embodiments, the mobile device 110 may supplement the functions performed by the on-board computer 114 described herein by, for example, sending or receiving information to and from the mobile server 140 via the network 130, such as over one or more radio frequency links or wireless communication channels. In other embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may perform all of the functions of the mobile device 110 described herein, in which case no mobile device 110 may be present in the system 100.

Either or both of the mobile device 110 or on-board computer 114 may communicate with the network 130 over links 112 and 118, respectively. Either or both of the mobile device 110 or on-board computer 114 may run a Data Application for collecting, generating, processing, analyzing, transmitting, receiving, and/or acting upon data associated with the vehicle 108 (e.g., sensor data, autonomous operation feature settings, or control decisions made by the autonomous operation features) or the vehicle environment (e.g., other vehicles operating near the vehicle 108). Additionally, the mobile device 110 and on-board computer 114 may communicate with one another directly over link 116.

The mobile device 110 may be either a general-use personal computer, cellular phone, smart phone, tablet computer, smart watch, wearable electronics, or a dedicated vehicle monitoring or control device. Although only one mobile device 110 is illustrated, it should be understood that a plurality of mobile devices 110 may be used in some embodiments. The on-board computer 114 may be a general-use on-board computer capable of performing many functions relating to vehicle operation or a dedicated computer for autonomous vehicle operation. Further, the on-board computer 114 may be installed by the manufacturer of the vehicle 108 or as an aftermarket modification or addition to the vehicle 108. In some embodiments or under certain conditions, the mobile device 110 or on-board computer 114 may function as thin-client devices that outsource some or most of the processing to the server 140.

The sensors 120 may be removably or fixedly installed within the vehicle 108 and may be disposed in various arrangements to provide information to the autonomous operation features. Among the sensors 120 may be included one or more of a GPS unit, a radar unit, a LIDAR unit, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, an inductance sensor, a camera, an accelerometer, a tachometer, or a speedometer. Some of the sensors 120 (e.g., radar, LIDAR, or camera units) may actively or passively scan the vehicle environment for obstacles (e.g., other vehicles, buildings, pedestrians, etc.), roadways, lane markings, signs, or signals. Other sensors 120 (e.g., GPS, accelerometer, or tachometer units) may provide data for determining the location or movement of the vehicle 108 (e.g., via GPS coordinates, dead reckoning, wireless signal triangulation, etc.). Other sensors 120 may be directed to the interior or passenger compartment of the vehicle 108, such as cameras, microphones, pressure sensors, thermometers, or similar sensors to monitor the vehicle operator and/or passengers within the vehicle 108. Information generated or received by the sensors 120 may be communicated to the on-board computer 114 or the mobile device 110 for use in autonomous vehicle operation.

In further embodiments, the front-end components may include an infrastructure communication device 124 for monitoring the status of one or more infrastructure components 126. Infrastructure components 126 may include roadways, bridges, traffic signals, gates, switches, crossings, parking lots or garages, toll booths, docks, hangars, or other similar physical portions of a transportation system's infrastructure. The infrastructure communication device 124 may include or be communicatively connected to one or more sensors (not shown) for detecting information relating to the condition of the infrastructure component 126. The sensors (not shown) may generate data relating to weather conditions, traffic conditions, or operating status of the infrastructure component 126.

The infrastructure communication device 124 may be configured to receive the sensor data generated and determine a condition of the infrastructure component 126, such as weather conditions, road integrity, construction, traffic, available parking spaces, etc. The infrastructure communication device 124 may further be configured to communicate information to vehicles 108 via the communication component 122. In some embodiments, the infrastructure communication device 124 may receive information from one or more vehicles 108, while, in other embodiments, the infrastructure communication device 124 may only transmit information to the vehicles 108. The infrastructure communication device 124 may be configured to monitor vehicles 108 and/or communicate information to other vehicles 108 and/or to mobile devices 110.

In some embodiments, the communication component 122 may receive information from external sources, such as other vehicles or infrastructure. The communication component 122 may also send information regarding the vehicle 108 to external sources. To send and receive information, the communication component 122 may include a transmitter and a receiver designed to operate according to predetermined specifications, such as the dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) channel, wireless telephony, Wi-Fi, or other existing or later-developed communications protocols. The received information may supplement the data received from the sensors 120 to implement the autonomous operation features. For example, the communication component 122 may receive information that an autonomous vehicle ahead of the vehicle 108 is reducing speed, allowing the adjustments in the autonomous operation of the vehicle 108.

In addition to receiving information from the sensors 120, the on-board computer 114 may directly or indirectly control the operation of the vehicle 108 according to various autonomous operation features. The autonomous operation features may include software applications or modules implemented by the on-board computer 114 to generate and implement control commands to control the steering, braking, or throttle of the vehicle 108. To facilitate such control, the on-board computer 114 may be communicatively connected to control components of the vehicle 108 by various electrical or electromechanical control components (not shown). When a control command is generated by the on-board computer 114, it may thus be communicated to the control components of the vehicle 108 to effect a control action. In embodiments involving fully autonomous vehicles, the vehicle 108 may be operable only through such control components (not shown). In other embodiments, the control components may be disposed within or supplement other vehicle operator control components (not shown), such as steering wheels, accelerator or brake pedals, or ignition switches.

In some embodiments, the front-end components 102 communicate with the back-end components 104 via the network 130. The network 130 may be a proprietary network, a secure public internet, a virtual private network or some other type of network, such as dedicated access lines, plain ordinary telephone lines, satellite links, cellular data networks, combinations of these. The network 130 may include one or more radio frequency communication links, such as wireless communication links 112 and 118 with mobile devices 110 and on-board computers 114, respectively. Where the network 130 comprises the Internet, data communications may take place over the network 130 via an Internet communication protocol.

The back-end components 104 include one or more servers 140. Each server 140 may include one or more computer processors adapted and configured to execute various software applications and components of the autonomous vehicle data system 100, in addition to other software applications. The server 140 may further include a database 146, which may be adapted to store data related to the operation of the vehicle 108 and its autonomous operation features. Such data might include, for example, dates and times of vehicle use, duration of vehicle use, use and settings of autonomous operation features, information regarding control decisions or control commands generated by the autonomous operation features, speed of the vehicle 108, RPM or other tachometer readings of the vehicle 108, lateral and longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle 108, vehicle accidents, incidents or near collisions of the vehicle 108, hazardous or anomalous conditions within the vehicle operating environment (e.g., construction, accidents, etc.), communication between the autonomous operation features and external sources, environmental conditions of vehicle operation (e.g., weather, traffic, road condition, etc.), errors or failures of autonomous operation features, or other data relating to use of the vehicle 108 and the autonomous operation features, which may be uploaded to the server 140 via the network 130. The server 140 may access data stored in the database 146 when executing various functions and tasks associated with the evaluating feature effectiveness or assessing risk relating to an autonomous vehicle.

Although the autonomous vehicle data system 100 is shown to include one vehicle 108, one mobile device 110, one on-board computer 114, and one server 140, it should be understood that different numbers of vehicles 108, mobile devices 110, on-board computers 114, and/or servers 140 may be utilized. For example, the system 100 may include a plurality of servers 140 and hundreds or thousands of mobile devices 110 or on-board computers 114, all of which may be interconnected via the network 130. Furthermore, the database storage or processing performed by the one or more servers 140 may be distributed among a plurality of servers 140 in an arrangement known as “cloud computing.” This configuration may provide various advantages, such as enabling near real-time uploads and downloads of information as well as periodic uploads and downloads of information. This may in turn support a thin-client embodiment of the mobile device 110 or on-board computer 114 discussed herein.

The server 140 may have a controller 155 that is operatively connected to the database 146 via a link 156. It should be noted that, while not shown, additional databases may be linked to the controller 155 in a known manner. For example, separate databases may be used for various types of information, such as autonomous operation feature information, vehicle accidents, road conditions, vehicle insurance policy information, or vehicle use information. Additional databases (not shown) may be communicatively connected to the server 140 via the network 130, such as databases maintained by third parties (e.g., weather, construction, or road network databases). The controller 155 may include a program memory 160, a processor 162 (which may be called a microcontroller or a microprocessor), a random-access memory (RAM) 164, and an input/output (I/O) circuit 166, all of which may be interconnected via an address/data bus 165. It should be appreciated that although only one microprocessor 162 is shown, the controller 155 may include multiple microprocessors 162. Similarly, the memory of the controller 155 may include multiple RAMs 164 and multiple program memories 160. Although the I/O circuit 166 is shown as a single block, it should be appreciated that the I/O circuit 166 may include a number of different types of I/O circuits. The RAM 164 and program memories 160 may be implemented as semiconductor memories, magnetically readable memories, or optically readable memories, for example. The controller 155 may also be operatively connected to the network 130 via a link 135.

The server 140 may further include a number of software applications stored in a program memory 160. The various software applications on the server 140 may include an autonomous operation information monitoring application 141 for receiving information regarding the vehicle 108 and its autonomous operation features (which may include control commands or decisions of the autonomous operation features), a feature evaluation application 142 for determining the effectiveness of autonomous operation features under various conditions and/or determining operating condition of autonomous operation features or components, a risk mapping application 143 for determining the risks associated with autonomous operation feature use along a plurality of road segments associated with an electronic map, a route determination application 144 for determining routes suitable for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle operation, and an autonomous parking application 145 for assisting in parking and retrieving an autonomous vehicle. The various software applications may be executed on the same computer processor or on different computer processors.

FIG. 1B illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary autonomous vehicle monitoring system 180 on which the exemplary methods described herein may be implemented. In one aspect, system 180 may include a network 130, N number of vehicles 182.1-182.N and respective mobile computing devices 184.1-184.N, an external computing device 186, and/or a smart infrastructure component 188. In one aspect, mobile computing devices 184 may be an implementation of mobile computing device 110, while vehicles 182 may be an implementation of vehicle 108. The vehicles 182 may include a plurality of vehicles 108 having autonomous operation features, as well as a plurality of other vehicles not having autonomous operation features. As illustrated, the vehicle 182.1 may include a vehicle controller 181.1, which may be an on-board computer 114 as discussed elsewhere herein, while vehicle 182.2 may lack such a component. Each of vehicles 182.1 and 182.2 may be configured for wireless inter-vehicle communication, such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) wireless communication and/or data transmission via the communication component 122, directly via the mobile computing devices 184, or otherwise.

Although system 180 is shown in FIG. 1A as including one network 130, two mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2, two vehicles 182.1 and 182.2, one external computing device 186, and/or one smart infrastructure component 188, various embodiments of system 180 may include any suitable number of networks 130, mobile computing devices 184, vehicles 182, external computing devices 186, and/or infrastructure components 188. The vehicles 182 included in such embodiments may include any number of vehicles 182.i having vehicle controllers 181.n (such as vehicle 182.1 with vehicle controller 181.1) and vehicles 182.j not having vehicles controllers (such as vehicle 182.2). Moreover, system 180 may include a plurality of external computing devices 186 and more than two mobile computing devices 184, any suitable number of which being interconnected directly to one another and/or via network 130.

In one aspect, each of mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 may be configured to communicate with one another directly via peer-to-peer (P2P) wireless communication and/or data transfer over a radio link or wireless communication channel. In other aspects, each of mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 may be configured to communicate indirectly with one another and/or any suitable device via communications over network 130, such as external computing device 186 and/or smart infrastructure component 188, for example. In still other aspects, each of mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 may be configured to communicate directly and/or indirectly with other suitable devices, which may include synchronous or asynchronous communication.

Each of mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 may be configured to send data to and/or receive data from one another and/or via network 130 using one or more suitable communication protocols, which may be the same communication protocols or different communication protocols. For example, mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 may be configured to communicate with one another via a direct radio link 183a, which may utilize, for example, a Wi-Fi direct protocol, an ad-hoc cellular communication protocol, etc. Mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 may also be configured to communicate with vehicles 182.1 and182.2, respectively, utilizing a BLUETOOTH communication protocol (radio link not shown). In some embodiments, this may include communication between a mobile computing device 184.1 and a vehicle controller 181.1. In other embodiments, it may involve communication between a mobile computing device 184.2 and a vehicle telephony, entertainment, navigation, or information system (not shown) of the vehicle 182.2 that provides functionality other than autonomous (or semi-autonomous) vehicle control. Thus, vehicles 182.2 without autonomous operation features may nonetheless be connected to mobile computing devices 184.2 in order to facilitate communication, information presentation, or similar non-control operations (e.g., navigation display, hands-free telephony, or music selection and presentation).

To provide additional examples, mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 may be configured to communicate with one another via radio links 183 b and 183 c by each communicating with network 130 utilizing a cellular communication protocol. As an additional example, mobile computing devices 184.1 and/or 184.2 may be configured to communicate with external computing device 186 via radio links 183 b, 183 c, and/or 183 e. Still further, one or more of mobile computing devices 184.1 and/or 184.2 may also be configured to communicate with one or more smart infrastructure components 188 directly (e.g., via radio link 183d) and/or indirectly (e.g., via radio links 183 c and 183 f via network 130) using any suitable communication protocols. Similarly, one or more vehicle controllers 181.1 may be configured to communicate directly to the network 130 (via radio link 183 b) or indirectly through mobile computing device 184.1 (via radio link 183 b). Vehicle controllers 181.1 may also communicate with other vehicle controllers and/or mobile computing devices 184.2 directly or indirectly through mobile computing device 184.1 via local radio links 183a. As discussed elsewhere herein, network 130 may be implemented as a wireless telephony network (e.g., GSM, CDMA, LTE, etc.), a Wi-Fi network (e.g., via one or more IEEE 802.11 Standards), a WiMAX network, a Bluetooth network, etc. Thus, links 183a-183 f may represent wired links, wireless links, or any suitable combination thereof. For example, the links 183 e and/or 183 f may include wired links to the network 130, in addition to, or instead of, wireless radio connections.

In some embodiments, the external computing device 186 may medicate communication between the mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 based upon location or other factors. In embodiments in which mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 communicate directly with one another in a peer-to-peer fashion, network 130 may be bypassed and thus communications between mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 and external computing device 186 may be unnecessary. For example, in some aspects, mobile computing device 184.1 may broadcast geographic location data and/or telematics data directly to mobile computing device 184.2. In this case, mobile computing device 184.2 may operate independently of network 130 to determine operating data, risks associated with operation, control actions to be taken, and/or alerts to be generated at mobile computing device 184.2 based upon the geographic location data, sensor data, and/or the autonomous operation feature data. In accordance with such aspects, network 130 and external computing device 186 may be omitted.

However, in other aspects, one or more of mobile computing devices 184.1 and/or 184.2 may work in conjunction with external computing device 186 to determine operating data, risks associated with operation, control actions to be taken, and/or alerts to be generated. For example, in some aspects, mobile computing device 184.1 may broadcast geographic location data and/or autonomous operation feature data, which is received by external computing device 186. In this case, external computing device 186 may be configured to determine whether the same or other information should be sent to mobile computing device 184.2 based upon the geographic location data, autonomous operation feature data, or data derived therefrom.

Mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 may be configured to execute one or more algorithms, programs, applications, etc., to determine a geographic location of each respective mobile computing device (and thus their associated vehicle) to generate, measure, monitor, and/or collect one or more sensor metrics as telematics data, to broadcast the geographic data and/or telematics data via their respective radio links, to receive the geographic data and/or telematics data via their respective radio links, to determine whether an alert should be generated based upon the telematics data and/or the geographic location data, to generate the one or more alerts, and/or to broadcast one or more alert notifications. Such functionality may, in some embodiments be controlled in whole or part by a Data Application operating on the mobile computing devices 184, as discussed elsewhere herein. Such Data Application may communicate between the mobile computing devices 184 and one or more external computing devices 186 (such as servers 140) to facilitate centralized data collection and/or processing.

In some embodiments, the Data Application may facilitate control of a vehicle 182 by a user, such as by selecting vehicle destinations and/or routes along which the vehicle 182 will travel. The Data Application may further be used to establish restrictions on vehicle use or store user preferences for vehicle use, such as in a user profile. The user profile may further include information regarding user skill or risk levels in operating a vehicle manually or using semi-autonomous operation features, which information may vary by location, time, type of operation, environmental conditions, etc. In further embodiments, the Data Application may monitor vehicle operation or sensor data in real-time to make recommendations or for other purposes as described herein. The Data Application may further facilitate monitoring and/or assessment of the vehicle 182, such as by evaluating operating data to determine the condition of the vehicle or components thereof (e.g., sensors, autonomous operation features, etc.).

External computing device 186 may be configured to execute various software applications, algorithms, and/or other suitable programs. External computing device 186 may be implemented as any suitable type of device to facilitate the functionality as described herein. For example, external computing device 186 may be a server 140 as discuses elsewhere herein. As another example, the external computing device 186 may be another computing device associated with an operator or owner of a vehicle 182, such as a desktop or notebook computer. Although illustrated as a single device in FIG. 1B, one or more portions of external computing device 186 may be implemented as one or more storage devices that are physically co-located with external computing device 186, or as one or more storage devices utilizing different storage locations as a shared database structure (e.g. cloud storage).

In some embodiments, external computing device 186 may be configured to perform any suitable portion of the processing functions remotely that have been outsourced by one or more of mobile computing devices 184.1 and/or 184.2 (and/or vehicle controllers 181.1). For example, mobile computing device 184.1 and/or 184.2 may collect data (e.g., geographic location data and/or telematics data) as described herein, but may send the data to external computing device 186 for remote processing instead of processing the data locally. In such embodiments, external computing device 186 may receive and process the data to determine whether an anomalous condition exists and, if so, whether to send an alert notification to one or more mobile computing devices 184.1 and 184.2 or take other actions.

In one aspect, external computing device 186 may additionally or alternatively be part of an insurer computing system (or facilitate communications with an insurer computer system), and as such may access insurer databases, execute algorithms, execute applications, access remote servers, communicate with remote processors, etc., as needed to perform insurance-related functions. Such insurance-related functions may include assisting insurance customers in evaluating autonomous operation features, limiting manual vehicle operation based upon risk levels, providing information regarding risk levels associated with autonomous and/or manual vehicle operation along routes, and/or determining repair/salvage information for damaged vehicles. For example, external computing device 186 may facilitate the receipt of autonomous operation or other data from one or more mobile computing devices 184.1-184.N, which may each be running a Data Application to obtain such data from autonomous operation features or sensors 120 associated therewith.

In aspects in which external computing device 186 facilitates communications with an insurer computing system (or is part of such a system), data received from one or more mobile computing devices 184.1-184.N may include user credentials, which may be verified by external computing device 186 or one or more other external computing devices, servers, etc. These user credentials may be associated with an insurance profile, which may include, for example, insurance policy numbers, a description and/or listing of insured assets, vehicle identification numbers of insured vehicles, addresses of insured structures, contact information, premium rates, discounts, etc. In this way, data received from one or more mobile computing devices 184.1-184.N may allow external computing device 186 to uniquely identify each insured customer and/or whether each identified insurance customer has installed the Data Application. In addition, external computing device 186 may facilitate the communication of the updated insurance policies, premiums, rates, discounts, etc., to insurance customers for their review, modification, and/or approval—such as via wireless communication or data transmission to one or more mobile computing devices 184.1-184.N over one or more radio frequency links or wireless communication channels.

In some aspects, external computing device 186 may facilitate indirect communications between one or more of mobile computing devices 184, vehicles 182, and/or smart infrastructure component 188 via network 130 or another suitable communication network, wireless communication channel, and/or wireless link. Smart infrastructure components 188 may be implemented as any suitable type of traffic infrastructure components configured to receive communications from and/or to send communications to other devices, such as mobile computing devices 184 and/or external computing device 186. Thus, smart infrastructure components 188 may include infrastructure components 126 having infrastructure communication devices 124. For example, smart infrastructure component 188 may be implemented as a traffic light, a railroad crossing signal, a construction notification sign, a roadside display configured to display messages, a billboard display, a parking garage monitoring device, etc.

In some embodiments, the smart infrastructure component 188 may include or be communicatively connected to one or more sensors (not shown) for detecting information relating to the condition of the smart infrastructure component 188, which sensors may be connected to or part of the infrastructure communication device 124 of the smart infrastructure component 188. The sensors (not shown) may generate data relating to weather conditions, traffic conditions, or operating status of the smart infrastructure component 188. The smart infrastructure component 188 may be configured to receive the sensor data generated and determine a condition of the smart infrastructure component 188, such as weather conditions, road integrity, construction, traffic, available parking spaces, etc.

In some aspects, smart infrastructure component 188 may be configured to communicate with one or more other devices directly and/or indirectly. For example, smart infrastructure component 188 may be configured to communicate directly with mobile computing device 184.2 via radio link 183d and/or with mobile computing device 184.1 via links 183 b and 183 f utilizing network 130. As another example, smart infrastructure component 188 may communicate with external computing device 186 via links 183 e and 183 f utilizing network 130. To provide some illustrative examples of the operation of the smart infrastructure component 188, if smart infrastructure component 188 is implemented as a smart traffic light, smart infrastructure component 188 may change a traffic light from green to red (or vice-versa) or adjust a timing cycle to favor traffic in one direction over another based upon data received from the vehicles 182. If smart infrastructure component 188 is implemented as a traffic sign display, smart infrastructure component 188 may display a warning message that an anomalous condition (e.g., an accident) has been detected ahead and/or on a specific road corresponding to the geographic location data.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary mobile device 110 or an exemplary on-board computer 114 consistent with the system 100 and the system 180. The mobile device 110 or on-board computer 114 may include a display 202, a GPS unit 206, a communication unit 220, an accelerometer 224, one or more additional sensors (not shown), a user-input device (not shown), and/or, like the server 140, a controller 204. In some embodiments, the mobile device 110 and on-board computer 114 may be integrated into a single device, or either may perform the functions of both. The on-board computer 114 (or mobile device 110) interfaces with the sensors 120 to receive information regarding the vehicle 108 and its environment, which information is used by the autonomous operation features to operate the vehicle 108.

Similar to the controller 155, the controller 204 may include a program memory 208, one or more microcontrollers or microprocessors (MP) 210, a RAM 212, and an I/O circuit 216, all of which are interconnected via an address/data bus 214. The program memory 208 includes an operating system 226, a data storage 228, a plurality of software applications 230, and/or a plurality of software routines 240. The operating system 226, for example, may include one of a plurality of general purpose or mobile platforms, such as the Android™, i0S®, or Windows® systems, developed by Google Inc., Apple Inc., and Microsoft Corporation, respectively. Alternatively, the operating system 226 may be a custom operating system designed for autonomous vehicle operation using the on-board computer 114. The data storage 228 may include data such as user profiles and preferences, application data for the plurality of applications 230, routine data for the plurality of routines 240, and other data related to the autonomous operation features. In some embodiments, the controller 204 may also include, or otherwise be communicatively connected to, other data storage mechanisms (e.g., one or more hard disk drives, optical storage drives, solid state storage devices, etc.) that reside within the vehicle 108.

As discussed with reference to the controller 155, it should be appreciated that although FIG. 2 depicts only one microprocessor 210, the controller 204 may include multiple microprocessors 210. Similarly, the memory of the controller 204 may include multiple RAMs 212 and multiple program memories 208. Although FIG. 2 depicts the I/O circuit 216 as a single block, the I/O circuit 216 may include a number of different types of I/O circuits. The controller 204 may implement the RAMs 212 and the program memories 208 as semiconductor memories, magnetically readable memories, or optically readable memories, for example.

The one or more processors 210 may be adapted and configured to execute any of one or more of the plurality of software applications 230 or any one or more of the plurality of software routines 240 residing in the program memory 204, in addition to other software applications. One of the plurality of applications 230 may be an autonomous vehicle operation application 232 that may be implemented as a series of machine-readable instructions for performing the various tasks associated with implementing one or more of the autonomous operation features according to the autonomous vehicle operation method 300, described further below. Another of the plurality of applications 230 may be an autonomous communication application 234 that may be implemented as a series of machine-readable instructions for transmitting and receiving autonomous operation information to or from external sources via the communication module 220. Still another application of the plurality of applications 230 may include an autonomous operation monitoring application 236 that may be implemented as a series of machine-readable instructions for sending information regarding autonomous operation of the vehicle to the server 140 via the network 130. The Data Application for collecting, generating, processing, analyzing, transmitting, receiving, and/or acting upon autonomous operation feature data may also be stored as one of the plurality of applications 230 in the program memory 208 of the mobile computing device 110 or on-board computer 114, which may be executed by the one or more processors 210 thereof.

The plurality of software applications 230 may call various of the plurality of software routines 240 to perform functions relating to autonomous vehicle operation, monitoring, or communication. One of the plurality of software routines 240 may be a configuration routine 242 to receive settings from the vehicle operator to configure the operating parameters of an autonomous operation feature. Another of the plurality of software routines 240 may be a sensor control routine 244 to transmit instructions to a sensor 120 and receive data from the sensor 120. Still another of the plurality of software routines 240 may be an autonomous control routine 246 that performs a type of autonomous control, such as collision avoidance, lane centering, or speed control. In some embodiments, the autonomous vehicle operation application 232 may cause a plurality of autonomous control routines 246 to determine control actions required for autonomous vehicle operation.

Similarly, one of the plurality of software routines 240 may be a monitoring and reporting routine 248 that transmits information regarding autonomous vehicle operation to the server 140 via the network 130. Yet another of the plurality of software routines 240 may be an autonomous communication routine 250 for receiving and transmitting information between the vehicle 108 and external sources to improve the effectiveness of the autonomous operation features. Any of the plurality of software applications 230 may be designed to operate independently of the software applications 230 or in conjunction with the software applications 230.

When implementing the exemplary autonomous vehicle operation method 300, the controller 204 of the on-board computer 114 may implement the autonomous vehicle operation application 232 to communicate with the sensors 120 to receive information regarding the vehicle 108 and its environment and process that information for autonomous operation of the vehicle 108. In some embodiments including external source communication via the communication component 122 or the communication unit 220, the controller 204 may further implement the autonomous communication application 234 to receive information for external sources, such as other autonomous vehicles, smart infrastructure (e.g., electronically communicating roadways, traffic signals, or parking structures), or other sources of relevant information (e.g., weather, traffic, local amenities). Some external sources of information may be connected to the controller 204 via the network 130, such as the server 140 or internet-connected third-party databases (not shown). Although the autonomous vehicle operation application 232 and the autonomous communication application 234 are shown as two separate applications, it should be understood that the functions of the autonomous operation features may be combined or separated into any number of the software applications 230 or the software routines 240.

When implementing the autonomous operation feature monitoring method 400, the controller 204 may further implement the autonomous operation monitoring application 236 to communicate with the server 140 to provide information regarding autonomous vehicle operation. This may include information regarding settings or configurations of autonomous operation features, data from the sensors 120 regarding the vehicle environment, data from the sensors 120 regarding the response of the vehicle 108 to its environment, communications sent or received using the communication component 122 or the communication unit 220, operating status of the autonomous vehicle operation application 232 and the autonomous communication application 234, and/or control commands sent from the on-board computer 114 to the control components (not shown) to operate the vehicle 108. In some embodiments, control commands generated by the on-board computer 114 but not implemented may also be recorded and/or transmitted for analysis of how the autonomous operation features would have responded to conditions if the features had been controlling the relevant aspect or aspects of vehicle operation. The information may be received and stored by the server 140 implementing the autonomous operation information monitoring application 141, and the server 140 may then determine the effectiveness of autonomous operation under various conditions by implementing the feature evaluation application 142, which may include an assessment of autonomous operation features compatibility. The effectiveness of autonomous operation features and the extent of their use may be further used to determine one or more risk levels associated with operation of the autonomous vehicle by the server 140.

In addition to connections to the sensors 120 that are external to the mobile device 110 or the on-board computer 114, the mobile device 110 or the on-board computer 114 may include additional sensors 120, such as the GPS unit 206 or the accelerometer 224, which may provide information regarding the vehicle 108 for autonomous operation and other purposes. Such sensors 120 may further include one or more sensors of a sensor array 225, which may include, for example, one or more cameras, accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, barometers, thermometers, proximity sensors, light sensors, Hall Effect sensors, etc. The one or more sensors of the sensor array 225 may be positioned to determine telematics data regarding the speed, force, heading, and/or direction associated with movements of the vehicle 108. Furthermore, the communication unit 220 may communicate with other autonomous vehicles, infrastructure, or other external sources of information to transmit and receive information relating to autonomous vehicle operation. The communication unit 220 may communicate with the external sources via the network 130 or via any suitable wireless communication protocol network, such as wireless telephony (e.g., GSM, CDMA, LTE, etc.), Wi-Fi (802.11 standards), WiMAX, Bluetooth, infrared or radio frequency communication, etc. Furthermore, the communication unit 220 may provide input signals to the controller 204 via the I/O circuit 216. The communication unit 220 may also transmit sensor data, device status information, control signals, or other output from the controller 204 to one or more external sensors within the vehicle 108, mobile devices 110, on-board computers 114, or servers 140.

The mobile device 110 or the on-board computer 114 may include a user-input device (not shown) for receiving instructions or information from the vehicle operator, such as settings relating to an autonomous operation feature. The user-input device (not shown) may include a “soft” keyboard that is displayed on the display 202, an external hardware keyboard communicating via a wired or a wireless connection (e.g., a Bluetooth keyboard), an external mouse, a microphone, or any other suitable user-input device. The user-input device (not shown) may also include a microphone capable of receiving user voice input.

Data Application

The mobile device 110 and/or on-board computer 114 may run a Data Application to collect, transmit, receive, and/or process autonomous operation feature data. Such autonomous operation feature data may include data directly generated by autonomous operation features, such as control commands used in operating the vehicle 108. Similarly, such autonomous operation feature data may include shadow control commands generated by the autonomous operation features but not actually used in operating the vehicle, such as may be generated when the autonomous operation features are disabled. The autonomous operation feature data may further include non-control data generated by the autonomous operation features, such as determinations regarding environmental conditions in the vehicle operating environment in which the vehicle 108 operates (e.g., traffic conditions, construction locations, pothole locations, worn lane markings, corners with obstructed views, etc.). The environmental data may include data or information associated with (i) road construction; (ii) flooded roads; (iii) pot holes; (iv) debris in the road; (v) road marking visibility; (vi) presence of bicycle lanes; (vii) inoperable traffic lights; (viii) degree of road lighting from street lights; (ix) number of pedestrians nearby; (x) presence of school bus stops; (xi) presence of school zones; (xii) traffic directed by emergency personnel; (xiii) traffic accidents; (xiv) detours, and/or (xv) other anomalies. The autonomous operation feature data may yet further include sensor data generated by (or derived from sensor data generated by) sensors 120 utilized by the autonomous operation features. For example, data from LIDAR and ultrasonic sensors may be used by vehicles for autonomous operation. Such data captures a much more detailed and complete representation of the conditions in which the vehicle 108 operates than traditional vehicle operation metrics (e.g., miles driven) or non-autonomous telematics data (e.g., acceleration, position, and time).

Autonomous operation feature data may be processed and used by the Data Application to determine information regarding the vehicle 108, its operation, or its operating environment. The autonomous operation feature data may further be communicated by the Data Application to a server 140 via network 130 for processing and/or storage. In some embodiments, the autonomous operation feature data (or information derived therefrom) may be transmitted directly via radio links 183 or indirectly via network 130 from the vehicle 108 to other vehicles (or to mobile devices 110). By communicating information associated with the autonomous operation feature data to other nearby vehicles, the other vehicles or their operators may make use of such data for routing, control, or other purposes. This may be particularly valuable in providing detailed information regarding a vehicle environment (e.g., traffic, accidents, flooding, ice, etc.) collected by a Data Application of an autonomous vehicle 108 to a driver of a non-autonomous vehicle via a Data Application of a mobile device 110 associated with the driver. For example, ice patches may be identified by an autonomous operation feature of a vehicle controller 181.1 of vehicle 182.1 and transmitted via the Data Application operating in the mobile computing device 184.1 over the network 130 to the mobile computing device 184.2, where a warning regarding the ice patches may be presented to the driver of vehicle 182.2. As another example, locations of emergency vehicles or accidents may be determined and communicated between vehicles 182, such as between an autonomous vehicle 182.1 and a traditional (non-autonomous) vehicle 182.2.

In further embodiments, a Data Application may serve as an interface between the user and an autonomous vehicle 108, via the user's mobile device 110 and/or the vehicle's on-board computer 114. The user may interact with the Data Application to locate, retrieve, park, control, or monitor the vehicle 108. For example, the Data Application may be used to select a destination and route the vehicle 108 to the destination, which may include controlling the vehicle to travel to the destination in a fully autonomous mode. In some embodiments, the Data Application may further determine and/or provide information regarding the vehicle 108, such as the operating status or condition of autonomous operation features, sensors, or other vehicle components (e.g., tire pressure). In yet further embodiments, the Data Application may be configured to assess risk levels associated with vehicle operation based upon location, autonomous operation feature use (including settings), operating conditions, or other factors. Such risk assessment may be further used in recommending autonomous feature use levels, generating warnings to a vehicle operator, or adjusting an insurance policy associated with the vehicle 108.

Data Applications may be installed and running on a plurality of mobile devices 110 and/or on-board computers 114 in order to facilitate data sharing and other functions as described herein. Additionally, such Data Applications may provide data to, and receive data from, one or more servers 140. For example, a Data Application running on a user's mobile device 110 may communicate location data to a server 140 via the network 130. The server 140 may then process the data to determine a route, risk level, recommendation, or other action. The server 140 may then communicate the determined information to the mobile device 110 and/or on-board computer 114, which may cause the vehicle 108 to operate in accordance with the determined information (e.g., travel along a determined optimal route). Thus, the Data Application may facilitate data communication between the front-end components 102 and the back-end components 104, allowing more efficient processing and data storage.

Data Acquisition

In one aspect, the present embodiments may relate to data acquisition. Data may be gathered via devices employing wireless communication technology, such as Bluetooth or other IEEE communication standards. In one embodiment, a Bluetooth enabled smartphone or mobile device, and/or an in-dash smart and/or communications device may collect data. The data associated with the vehicle, and/or vehicle or driver performance, that is gathered or collected at, or on, the vehicle may be wirelessly transmitted to a remote processor or server, such as a remote processor or server associated with an insurance provider. The mobile device 110 may receive the data from the on-board computer 114 or the sensors 120, and may transmit the received data to the server 140 via the network 130, and the data may be stored in the database 146. In some embodiments, the transmitted data may include real-time sensor data, a summary of the sensor data, processed sensor data, operating data, environmental data, communication data, or a log such data.

Data may be generated by autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles and/or vehicle mounted sensors (or smart sensors), and then collected by vehicle mounted equipment or processors, including Bluetooth devices, and/or an insurance provider remote processor or server. The data gathered may be used to analyze vehicle decision making. A processor may be configured to generate data on what an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle would have done in a given situation had the driver not taken over manual control/driving of the vehicle or alternative control actions not taken by the autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features. This type of unimplemented control decision data (related to vehicle decision making) may be useful with respect to analyzing hypothetical situations.

In one embodiment, an application (i.e., the Data Application), or other computer or processor instructions, may interact with a vehicle to receive and/or retrieve data from autonomous or semi-autonomous processors and sensors 120. The data retrieved may be related to radar, cameras, sensor output, computer instructions, or application output. Other data related to a smart vehicle controller, car navigation unit information (including route history information and typical routes taken), GPS unit information, odometer and/or speedometer information, and smart equipment data may also be gathered or collected. The application and/or other computer instructions may be associated with an insurance provider remote processor or server.

The control decision data may further include information regarding control decisions generated by one or more autonomous operation features within the vehicle. The operating data and control decision data gathered, collected, and/or acquired may facilitate remote evaluation and/or analysis of what the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle was “trying to do” (brake, slow, turn, accelerate, etc.) during operation, as well as what the vehicle actually did do. The data may reveal decisions, and the appropriateness thereof, made by the artificial intelligence or computer instructions associated with one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle technologies, functionalities, systems, and/or pieces of equipment. The data may include information related to what the vehicle would have done in a situation if the driver had not taken over (beginning manual vehicle control) or if the autonomous operation features had been enabled or enabled with different settings. Such data may include both the control actions taken by the vehicle and control actions the autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features would have caused the vehicle to take. Thus, in some embodiments, the control decisions data may include information regarding unimplemented control decisions not implemented by the autonomous operation features to control the vehicle. This may occur when an autonomous operation feature generates a control decision or associated control signal, but the control decision or signal is prevented from controlling the vehicle because the autonomous feature or function is disabled, the control decision is overridden by the vehicle operator, the control signal would conflict with another control signal generated by another autonomous operation feature, a more preferred control decision is generated, or an error occurs in the on-board computer 114 or the control system of the vehicle.

For example, a vehicle operator may disable or constrain the operation of some or all autonomous operation features, such as where the vehicle is operated manually or semi-autonomously. The disabled or constrained autonomous operation features may, however, continue to receive sensor data and generate control decision data that is not implemented. Similarly, one or more autonomous operation features may generate more than one control decision in a relevant period of time as alternative control decisions. Some of these alternative control decisions may not be selected by the autonomous operation feature or an autonomous operation control system to control the vehicle. For example, such alternative control decisions may be generated based on different sets of sensor or communication data from different sensors 120 or include or excluding autonomous communication data. As another example, the alternative control decisions may be generated faster than they can be implemented by the control system of the vehicle, thus preventing all control decisions from being implemented.

In addition to control decision data, other information regarding the vehicle, the vehicle environment, or vehicle operation may be collected, generated, transmitted, received, requested, stored, or recorded in connection with the control decision data. As discussed elsewhere herein, additional operating data including sensor data from the sensors 120, autonomous communication data from the communication component 122 or the communication module 220, location data, environmental data, time data, settings data, configuration data, and/or other relevant data may be associated with the control decision data. In some embodiments, a database or log may store the control decision data and associated information. In further embodiments, the entries in such log or database may include a timestamp indicating the date, time, location, vehicle environment, vehicle condition, autonomous operation feature settings, and/or autonomous operation feature configuration information associated with each entry. Such data may facilitate evaluating the autonomous or semi-autonomous technology, functionality, system, and/or equipment in hypothetical situations and/or may be used to calculate risk, and in turn adjust insurance policies, premiums, discounts, etc.

The data gathered may be used to evaluate risk associated with the autonomous or semi-autonomous operation feature or technology at issue. As discussed elsewhere herein, information regarding the operation of the vehicle may be monitored or associated with test data or actual loss data regarding losses associated with insurance policies for other vehicles having the autonomous technology or feature to determine risk levels and/or risk profiles. Specifically, the control decision data, sensor data, and other operating data discussed above may be used to determine risk levels, loss models, and/or risk profiles associated with one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features. External data may further be used to determine risk, as discussed below. Such determined risk levels may further be used to determine insurance rates, premiums, discounts, or costs as discussed in greater detail below.

In one embodiment, the data gathered may be used to determine an average distance to another vehicle ahead of, and/or behind, the vehicle during normal use of the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle technology, functionality, system, and/or equipment. A safe driving distance to other vehicles on the road may lower the risk of accident. The data gathered may also relate to how quickly the technology, functionality, system, and/or equipment may properly stop or slow a vehicle in response to a light changing from green to yellow, and/or from yellow to red. Timely stopping at traffic lights may also positively impact risk of collision. The data gathered may indicate issues not entirely related to the autonomous or semi-autonomous technology, functionality, system, and/or equipment. For instance, tires spinning and low vehicle speed may be monitored and identified to determine that vehicle movement was being affected by the weather (as compared to the technology, functionality, system, and/or equipment during normal operation). Vehicle tires may spin with little or no vehicle movement in snow, rain, mud, ice, etc.

The data gathered may indicate a current version of artificial intelligence or computer instructions that the autonomous or semi-autonomous system or equipment is utilizing. A collision risk factor may be assigned to each version of computer instructions. The insurance provider may then adjust or update insurance policies, premiums, rates, discounts, and/or other insurance-related items based upon the collision risk factor and/or the artificial intelligence or computer instruction versions presently employed by the vehicle (and/or upgrades there to).

The decision and operating data gathered may be merged with outside data, such as information related to weather, traffic, construction, and/or other factors, and/or collected from sources besides the vehicle. In some embodiments, such data from outside the vehicle may be combined with the control decision data and other operating data discussed above to determine risks associated with the operation of one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features. External data regarding the vehicle environment may be requested or received via the network 130 and associated with the entries in the log or database based on the timestamp. For example, the location, date, and time of a timestamp may be used to determine weather and traffic conditions in which vehicle operation occurred. Additional external data may include road conditions, weather conditions, nearby traffic conditions, type of road, construction conditions, presence of pedestrians, presence of other obstacles, and/or availability of autonomous communications from external sources. For instance, weather may impact certain autonomous or semi-autonomous technology, functionality, system, and/or equipment performance, such as fog, visibility, wind, rain, snow, and/or ice. Certain autonomous or semi-autonomous functionality may have degraded performance: (1) on ice covered roads; (2) during snow or rain, and/or on snow or rain covered roads; (3) during poor visibility conditions, such as foggy weather; (4) in “stop and go” traffic, such as during rush hour traffic, or slow moving traffic through high construction areas or downtown areas; and/or (5) caused by other factors.

The system and method may consider the geographical area associated with the user, or the owner or operator of a vehicle. For instance, rain mitigation functionality or technology for vehicles may be pertinent to reducing the amount of accidents and/or the severity of such accidents in areas of high rain fall, such as the Pacific Northwest or Florida. On the other hand, such functionality may have less of a beneficial impact on accidents or potential accidents in desert locations, such as Nevada or New Mexico. Construction-related data may also be collected and analyzed. Construction-related accident avoidance and/or mitigation technology, functionality, systems, or associated equipment may be more pertinent in large urban areas involving significant and lengthy construction or road connector projects that may include frequently changing travel patterns with little notice to drivers.

The data gathered may relate to autonomous vehicle telematics variables. Usage of other technologies and functionalities (including the technologies and functionalities discussed elsewhere herein) may be monitored, and recommended usages thereof (and associated insurance savings) may be provided to the insured or driver for their review and/or approval. Other manners of saving money on existing auto insurance coverage may be provided to the driver via wireless communication. For instance, a percentage of time that the vehicle is in a (1) “manual” mode or operation; (2) semi-automated, semi-automatic, or “semi-autonomous” mode or operation; and/or (3) fully automated, fully automatic, or fully “autonomous” mode or operation may be determined from vehicle sensor data that is remotely collected, such as at or by an insurance provider remote processor or server.

Also, the data gathered may be used to provide feedback to the customer or insured. For instance, if the vehicle is presently traveling on the highway, a recommendation or offer may be presented to the driver, such as via wireless communication with the vehicle that indicates that if the driver places the vehicle into autonomous or semi-autonomous driving mode, the risk of collision may be reduced and/or the driver may be receive a discount, and/or lower premium on his or her auto insurance. Other manners of potential risk reductions may also be communicated to the driver or owner of the vehicle. For instance, recommendations and/or adjustments to insurance policies, premiums, rates, discounts, rewards, and/or other insurance-related items may be based upon driver characteristics or age, such as beginning or teenage drivers.

The data gathered may originate from various smart parts and/or pieces of smart equipment mounted on a vehicle, including parts configured for wired or wireless communication. For instance, a vehicle may be equipped with smart brakes; smart tail, head, or turn lights; smart tires; etc. Each piece of smart equipment may have a wired or wireless transmitter. Each piece of smart equipment may be configured to monitor its operation, and/or indicate or communicate a warning to the driver when it is not operating properly. Such smart equipment may be included within the sensors 120.

As an example, when a rear brake light is out, such as from faulty repair or from normal burn out, that fact may be detected by smart vehicle functionality and the driver may be promptly notified. As a result, the driver may be able to repair the faulty brake light before an accident caused by the faulty brake light occurs. In another embodiment, the data gathered may also indicate window wipers are not operating properly, and need to be replaced. The insurance provider may adjust or update insurance policies, premiums, rates, discounts, and/or other insurance-related items based upon the smart equipment warning functionality that may alert drivers of vehicle equipment or vehicle safety equipment (lights, brakes, etc.) that need to be replaced or repaired, and thus may reduce collision risk. In addition to addressing liability for collision risk, the technology may also reduce risk of theft. For instance, stolen vehicles may be tracked via on-board GPS units and wireless transmitters. Also, the breaking and entering, and/or hot wiring, of vehicles may be more difficult through the use of anti-hacking measures for smart vehicles or vehicles with electrical or electronic control systems. The insurance provider may adjust insurance premiums, rates, and/or other insurance-related items based upon the reduced risk of theft.

Exemplary Autonomous Vehicle Operation Method

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary autonomous vehicle operation method 300, which may be implemented by the autonomous vehicle data system 100. The method 300 may begin when the controller 204 receives a start signal (block 302). The start signal may be a command from the vehicle operator through the user-input device to enable or engage one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle 108. In some embodiments, the vehicle operator 108 may further specify settings or configuration details for the autonomous operation features. For fully autonomous vehicles, the settings may relate to one or more destinations, route preferences, fuel efficiency preferences, speed preferences, or other configurable settings relating to the operation of the vehicle 108. In some embodiments, fully autonomous vehicles may include additional features or settings permitting them to operate without passengers or vehicle operators within the vehicle. For example, a fully autonomous vehicle may receive an instruction to find a parking space within the general vicinity, which the vehicle may do without the vehicle operator. The vehicle may then be returned to a selected location by a request from the vehicle operator via a mobile device 110 or otherwise. This feature may further be adapted to return a fully autonomous vehicle if lost or stolen.

For other autonomous vehicles, the settings may include enabling or disabling particular autonomous operation features, specifying thresholds for autonomous operation, specifying warnings or other information to be presented to the vehicle operator, specifying autonomous communication types to send or receive, specifying conditions under which to enable or disable autonomous operation features, or specifying other constraints on feature operation. For example, a vehicle operator may set the maximum speed for an adaptive cruise control feature with automatic lane centering. In some embodiments, the settings may further include a specification of whether the vehicle 108 should be operating as a fully or partially autonomous vehicle.

In embodiments where only one autonomous operation feature is enabled, the start signal may consist of a request to perform a particular task (e.g., autonomous parking) or to enable a particular feature (e.g., autonomous braking for collision avoidance). In other embodiments, the start signal may be generated automatically by the controller 204 based upon predetermined settings (e.g., when the vehicle 108 exceeds a certain speed or is operating in low-light conditions). In some embodiments, the controller 204 may generate a start signal when communication from an external source is received (e.g., when the vehicle 108 is on a smart highway or near another autonomous vehicle). In some embodiments, the start signal may be generated by or received by the Data Application running on a mobile device 110 or on-board computer 114 within the vehicle 108. The Data Application may further set or record settings for one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle 108.

After receiving the start signal at block 302, the controller 204 receives sensor data from the sensors 120 during vehicle operation (block 304). In some embodiments, the controller 204 may also receive information from external sources through the communication component 122 or the communication unit 220. The sensor data may be stored in the RAM 212 for use by the autonomous vehicle operation application 232. In some embodiments, the sensor data may be recorded in the data storage 228 or transmitted to the server 140 via the network 130. The Data Application may receive the sensor data, or a portion thereof, and store or transmit the received sensor data. In some embodiments, the Data Application may process or determine summary information from the sensor data before storing or transmitting the summary information. The sensor data may alternately either be received by the controller 204 as raw data measurements from one of the sensors 120 or may be preprocessed by the sensor 120 prior to being received by the controller 204. For example, a tachometer reading may be received as raw data or may be preprocessed to indicate vehicle movement or position. As another example, a sensor 120 comprising a radar or LIDAR unit may include a processor to preprocess the measured signals and send data representing detected objects in 3-dimensional space to the controller 204.

The autonomous vehicle operation application 232 or other applications 230 or routines 240 may cause the controller 204 to process the received sensor data in accordance with the autonomous operation features (block 306). The controller 204 may process the sensor data to determine whether an autonomous control action is required or to determine adjustments to the controls of the vehicle 108 (i.e., control commands). For example, the controller 204 may receive sensor data indicating a decreasing distance to a nearby object in the vehicle's path and process the received sensor data to determine whether to begin braking (and, if so, how abruptly to slow the vehicle 108). As another example, the controller 204 may process the sensor data to determine whether the vehicle 108 is remaining with its intended path (e.g., within lanes on a roadway). If the vehicle 108 is beginning to drift or slide (e.g., as on ice or water), the controller 204 may determine appropriate adjustments to the controls of the vehicle to maintain the desired bearing. If the vehicle 108 is moving within the desired path, the controller 204 may nonetheless determine whether adjustments are required to continue following the desired route (e.g., following a winding road). Under some conditions, the controller 204 may determine to maintain the controls based upon the sensor data (e.g., when holding a steady speed on a straight road).

In some embodiments, the Data Application may record information related to the processed sensor data, including whether the autonomous operation features have determined one or more control actions to control the vehicle and/or details regarding such control actions. The Data Application may record such information even when no control actions are determined to be necessary or where such control actions are not implemented. Such information may include information regarding the vehicle operating environment determined from the processed sensor data (e.g., construction, other vehicles, pedestrians, anomalous environmental conditions, etc.). The information collected by the Data Application may further include an indication of whether and/or how the control actions are implemented using control components of the vehicle 108.

When the controller 204 determines an autonomous control action is required (block 308), the controller 204 may cause the control components of the vehicle 108 to adjust the operating controls of the vehicle to achieve desired operation (block 310). For example, the controller 204 may send a signal to open or close the throttle of the vehicle 108 to achieve a desired speed. Alternatively, the controller 204 may control the steering of the vehicle 108 to adjust the direction of movement. In some embodiments, the vehicle 108 may transmit a message or indication of a change in velocity or position using the communication component 122 or the communication module 220, which signal may be used by other autonomous vehicles to adjust their controls. As discussed elsewhere herein, the controller 204 may also log or transmit the autonomous control actions to the server 140 via the network 130 for analysis. In some embodiments, an application (which may be a Data Application) executed by the controller 204 may communicate data to the server 140 via the network 130 or may communicate such data to the mobile device 110 for further processing, storage, transmission to nearby vehicles or infrastructure, and/or communication to the server 140 via network 130.

The controller 204 may continue to receive and process sensor data at blocks 304 and 306 until an end signal is received by the controller 204 (block 312). The end signal may be automatically generated by the controller 204 upon the occurrence of certain criteria (e.g., the destination is reached or environmental conditions require manual operation of the vehicle 108 by the vehicle operator). Alternatively, the vehicle operator may pause, terminate, or disable the autonomous operation feature or features using the user-input device or by manually operating the vehicle's controls, such as by depressing a pedal or turning a steering instrument. When the autonomous operation features are disabled or terminated, the controller 204 may either continue vehicle operation without the autonomous features or may shut off the vehicle 108, depending upon the circumstances.

Where control of the vehicle 108 must be returned to the vehicle operator, the controller 204 may alert the vehicle operator in advance of returning to manual operation. The alert may include a visual, audio, or other indication to obtain the attention of the vehicle operator. In some embodiments, the controller 204 may further determine whether the vehicle operator is capable of resuming manual operation before terminating autonomous operation. If the vehicle operator is determined not to be capable of resuming operation, the controller 204 may cause the vehicle to stop or take other appropriate action.

To control the vehicle 108, the autonomous operation features may generate and implement control decisions relating to the control of the motive, steering, and stopping components of the vehicle 108. The control decisions may include or be related to control commands issued by the autonomous operation features to control such control components of the vehicle 108 during operation. In some embodiments, control decisions may include decisions determined by the autonomous operation features regarding control commands such feature would have issued under the conditions then occurring, but which control commands were not issued or implemented. For example, an autonomous operation feature may generate and record shadow control decisions it would have implemented if engaged to operate the vehicle 108 even when the feature is disengaged (or engaged using other settings from those that would produce the shadow control decisions).

Data regarding the control decisions actually implemented and/or the shadow control decisions not implemented to control the vehicle 108 may be recorded for use in assessing autonomous operation feature effectiveness, accident reconstruction and fault determination, feature use or settings recommendations, risk determination and insurance policy adjustments, or other purposes as described elsewhere herein. For example, actual control decisions may be compared against control decisions that would have been made by other systems, software versions, or with additional sensor data or communication data.

As used herein, the terms “preferred” or “preferably made” control decisions mean control decisions that optimize some metric associated with risk under relevant conditions. Such metric may include, among other things, a statistical correlation with one or more risks (e.g., risks related to a vehicle collision) or an expected value associated with risks (e.g., a risk-weighted expected loss associated with potential vehicle accidents). The preferably made, or preferred or recommended, control decisions discussed herein may include control decisions or control decision outcomes that are less risky, have lower risk or the lowest risk of all the possible or potential control decisions given various operating conditions, and/or are otherwise ideal, recommended, or preferred based upon various operating conditions, including autonomous system or feature capability; current road, environmental or weather, traffic, or construction conditions through which the vehicle is traveling; and/or current versions of autonomous system software or components that the autonomous vehicle is equipped with and using.

The preferred or recommended control decisions may result in the lowest level of potential or actual risk of all the potential or possible control decisions given a set of various operating conditions and/or system features or capabilities. Alternatively, the preferred or recommended control decisions may result in a lower level of potential or actual risk (for a given set of operating conditions) to the autonomous vehicle and passengers, and other people or vehicles, than some of the other potential or possible control decisions that could have been made by the autonomous system or feature.

Exemplary Monitoring Method

FIG. 4A is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary autonomous vehicle operation monitoring method 400, which may be implemented by the autonomous vehicle data system 100. The method 400 monitors the operation of the vehicle 108 and transmits information regarding the vehicle 108 to the server 140, which information may then be used to determine autonomous operation feature usage or effectiveness. The method 400 may be used for monitoring the state of the vehicle 108, for providing data to other vehicles 182, for responding to emergencies or unusual situations during vehicle use, for testing autonomous operation features in a controlled environment, for determining actual feature use during vehicle operation outside a test environment, for assessment of feature operation, and/or for other purposes described herein. In alternative embodiments, the method 400 may be implemented whenever the vehicle 108 is in operation (manual or autonomous) or only when the autonomous operation features are enabled. The method 400 may likewise be implemented as either a real-time process, in which information regarding the vehicle 108 is communicated to the server 140 while monitoring is ongoing, or as a periodic process, in which the information is stored within the vehicle 108 and communicated to the server 140 at intervals (e.g., upon completion of a trip or when an incident occurs). In some embodiments, the method 400 may communicate with the server 140 in real-time when certain conditions exist (e.g., when a sufficient data connection through the network 130 exists or when no roaming charges would be incurred). In further embodiments, a Data Application executed by the mobile device 110 and/or on-board computer 114 may perform such monitoring, recording, and/or communication functions, including any of the functions described below with respect to blocks 402-434.

The method 400 may begin when the controller 204 receives an indication of vehicle operation (block 402). The indication may be generated when the vehicle 108 is started or when an autonomous operation feature is enabled by the controller 204 or by input from the vehicle operator, as discussed above. In response to receiving the indication, the controller 204 may create a timestamp (block 404). The timestamp may include information regarding the date, time, location, vehicle environment, vehicle condition, and autonomous operation feature settings or configuration information. The date and time may be used to identify one vehicle trip or one period of autonomous operation feature use, in addition to indicating risk levels due to traffic or other factors. The additional location and environmental data may include information regarding the position of the vehicle 108 from the GPS unit 206 and its surrounding environment (e.g., road conditions, weather conditions, nearby traffic conditions, type of road, construction conditions, presence of pedestrians, presence of other obstacles, availability of autonomous communications from external sources, etc.). Vehicle condition information may include information regarding the type, make, and model of the vehicle 108, the age or mileage of the vehicle 108, the status of vehicle equipment (e.g., tire pressure, non-functioning lights, fluid levels, etc.), or other information relating to the vehicle 108. In some embodiments, vehicle condition information may further include information regarding the sensors 120, such as type, configuration, or operational status (which may be determined, for example, from analysis of actual or test data from the sensors). In some embodiments, the timestamp may be recorded on the client device 114, the mobile device 110, or the server 140.

The autonomous operation feature settings may correspond to information regarding the autonomous operation features, such as those described above with reference to the autonomous vehicle operation method 300. The autonomous operation feature configuration information may correspond to information regarding the number and type of the sensors 120 (which may include indications of manufacturers and models of the sensors 120), the disposition of the sensors 120 within the vehicle 108 (which may include disposition of sensors 120 within one or more mobile devices 110), the one or more autonomous operation features (e.g., the autonomous vehicle operation application 232 or the software routines 240), autonomous operation feature control software, versions of the software applications 230 or routines 240 implementing the autonomous operation features, or other related information regarding the autonomous operation features.

For example, the configuration information may include the make and model of the vehicle 108 (indicating installed sensors 120 and the type of on-board computer 114), an indication of a malfunctioning or obscured sensor 120 in part of the vehicle 108, information regarding additional after-market sensors 120 installed within the vehicle 108, a software program type and version for a control program installed as an application 230 on the on-board computer 114, and software program types and versions for each of a plurality of autonomous operation features installed as applications 230 or routines 240 in the program memory 208 of the on-board computer 114.

During operation, the sensors 120 may generate sensor data regarding the vehicle 108 and its environment, which may include other vehicles 182 within the operating environment of the vehicle 108. In some embodiments, one or more of the sensors 120 may preprocess the measurements and communicate the resulting processed data to the on-board computer 114 and/or the mobile device 110. The controller 204 may receive sensor data from the sensors 120 (block 406). The sensor data may include information regarding the vehicle's position, speed, acceleration, direction, and responsiveness to controls. The sensor data may further include information regarding the location and movement of obstacles or obstructions (e.g., other vehicles, buildings, barriers, pedestrians, animals, trees, or gates), weather conditions (e.g., precipitation, wind, visibility, or temperature), road conditions (e.g., lane markings, potholes, road material, traction, or slope), signs or signals (e.g., traffic signals, construction signs, building signs or numbers, or control gates), or other information relating to the vehicle's environment. In some embodiments, sensors 120 may indicate the number of passengers within the vehicle 108, including an indication of whether the vehicle is entirely empty.

In addition to receiving sensor data from the sensors 120, in some embodiments the controller 204 may receive autonomous communication data from the communication component 122 or the communication module 220 (block 408). The communication data may include information from other autonomous vehicles (e.g., sudden changes to vehicle speed or direction, intended vehicle paths, hard braking, vehicle failures, collisions, or maneuvering or stopping capabilities), infrastructure (road or lane boundaries, bridges, traffic signals, control gates, or emergency stopping areas), or other external sources (e.g., map databases, weather databases, or traffic and accident databases). In some embodiments, the communication data may include data from non-autonomous vehicles, which may include data regarding vehicle operation or anomalies within the operating environment determined by a Data Application operating on a mobile device 110 or on-board computer 114. The communication data may be combined with the received sensor data received to obtain a more robust understanding of the vehicle environment. For example, the server 140 or the controller 204 may combine sensor data indicating frequent changes in speed relative to tachometric data with map data relating to a road upon which the vehicle 108 is traveling to determine that the vehicle 108 is in an area of hilly terrain. As another example, weather data indicating recent snowfall in the vicinity of the vehicle 108 may be combined with sensor data indicating frequent slipping or low traction to determine that the vehicle 108 is traveling on a snow-covered or icy road.

The controller 204 may process the sensor data, the communication data, and the settings or configuration information to determine whether an incident has occurred (block 410). As used herein, an “incident” is an occurrence during operation of an autonomous vehicle outside of normal safe operating conditions, such that one or more of the following occurs: (i) there is an interruption of ordinary vehicle operation, (ii) there is damage to the vehicle or other property, (iii) there is injury to a person, (iv) the conditions require action to be taken by a vehicle operator, autonomous operation feature, pedestrian, or other party to avoid damage or injury, and/or (v) an anomalous condition is detected that requires an adjustment to or outside of ordinary vehicle operation. Incidents may include collisions, hard braking, hard acceleration, evasive maneuvering, loss of traction, detection of objects within a threshold distance from the vehicle 108, alerts presented to the vehicle operator, component failure, inconsistent readings from sensors 120, or attempted unauthorized access to the on-board computer by external sources. Incidents may also include accidents, vehicle breakdowns, flat tires, empty fuel tanks, or medical emergencies. Incidents may further include identification of construction requiring the vehicle to detour or stop, hazardous conditions (e.g., fog or road ice), or other anomalous environmental conditions.

In some embodiments, the controller 204 may anticipate or project an expected incident based upon sensor or external data, allowing the controller 204 to send control signals to minimize the negative effects of the incident. For example, the controller 204 may cause the vehicle 108 to slow and move to the shoulder of a road immediately before running out of fuel. As another example, adjustable seats within the vehicle 108 may be adjusted to better position vehicle occupants in anticipation of a collision, windows may be opened or closed, or airbags may be deployed.

When an incident is determined to have occurred (block 412), information regarding the incident and the vehicle status may be recorded (block 414), either in the data storage 228 or the database 146. The information recorded may include sensor data, communication data, and settings or configuration information prior to, during, and immediately following the incident. In some embodiments, a preliminary determination of fault may also be produced and stored. The information may further include a determination of whether the vehicle 108 has continued operating (either autonomously or manually) or whether the vehicle 108 is capable of continuing to operate in compliance with applicable safety and legal requirements. If the controller 204 determines that the vehicle 108 has discontinued operation or is unable to continue operation (block 416), the method 400 may terminate. If the vehicle 108 continues operation, then the method 400 may continue as described below with reference to block 418.

FIG. 4B illustrates an alternative portion of the method 400 following an incident. When an incident is determined to have occurred (block 412), the controller 204 or the server 140 may record status and operating information (block 414), as above. In some instances, the incident may interrupt communication between the vehicle 108 and the server 140 via network 130, such that not all information typically recorded will be available for recordation and analysis by the server 140. Based upon the recorded data, the server 140 or the controller 204 may determine whether assistance may be needed at the location of the vehicle 108 (block 430). For example, the controller may determine that a head-on collision has occurred based upon sensor data (e.g., airbag deployment, automatic motor shut-off, LIDAR data indicating a collision, etc.) and may further determine based upon information regarding the speed of the vehicle 108 and other information that medical, police, and/or towing services will be necessary. The determination that assistance is needed may further include a determination of types of assistance needed (e.g., police, ambulance, fire, towing, vehicle maintenance, fuel delivery, etc.). This determination may include analysis of the type of incident, the sensor data regarding the incident (e.g., images from outward facing or inward facing cameras installed within the vehicle, identification of whether any passengers were present within the vehicle, determination of whether any pedestrians or passengers in other vehicles were involved in the incident, etc.). The determination of whether assistance is needed may further include information regarding the determined status of the vehicle 108.

In some embodiments, the determination regarding whether assistance is needed may be supplemented by a verification attempt, such as a phone call or communication through the on-board computer 114. Where the verification attempt indicates assistance is required or communication attempts fail, the server 140 or controller 204 would then determine that assistance is needed, as described above. For example, when assistance is determined to be needed following an accident involving the vehicle 108, the server 140 may direct an automatic telephone call to a mobile telephone number associated with the vehicle 108 or the vehicle operator. If no response is received, or if the respondent indicates assistance is required, the server 140 may proceed to cause a request for assistance to be generated.

When assistance is determined to be needed (block 432), the controller 204 or the server 140 may send a request for assistance (block 434). The request may include information regarding the vehicle 108, such as the vehicle's location, the type of assistance required, other vehicles involved in the incident, pedestrians involved in the incident, vehicle operators or passengers involved in the incident, and/or other relevant information. The request for assistance may include telephonic, data, or other requests to one or more emergency or vehicular service providers (e.g., local police, fire departments, state highway patrols, emergency medical services, public or private ambulance services, hospitals, towing companies, roadside assistance services, vehicle rental services, local claims representative offices, etc.). After sending a request for assistance (block 434) or when assistance is determined not to be needed (block 432), the controller 204 or the server 140 may next determine whether the vehicle is operational (block 416), as described above. The method 400 may then end or continue as indicated in FIG. 4A.

In some embodiments, the controller 204 may further determine information regarding the likely cause of a collision or other incident. Alternatively, or additionally, the server 140 may receive information regarding an incident from the on-board computer 114 and determine relevant additional information regarding the incident from the sensor data. For example, the sensor data may be used to determine the points of impact on the vehicle 108 and another vehicle involved in a collision, the relative velocities of each vehicle, the road conditions at the time of the incident, and the likely cause or the party likely at fault. This information may be used to determine risk levels associated with autonomous vehicle operation, as described below, even where the incident is not reported to the insurer.

The controller 204 may determine whether a change or adjustment to one or more of the settings or configuration of the autonomous operation features has occurred (block 418). Changes to the settings may include enabling or disabling an autonomous operation feature or adjusting the feature's parameters (e.g., resetting the speed on an adaptive cruise control feature). For example, a vehicle operator may selectively enable or disable autonomous operation features such as automatic braking, lane centering, or even fully autonomous operation at different times. If the settings or configuration are determined to have changed, the new settings or configuration may be recorded (block 422), either in the data storage 228 or the database 146. For example, the Data Application may log autonomous operation feature use and changes in a log file, including timestamps associated with the features in use.

Next, the controller 204 may record the operating data relating to the vehicle 108 in the data storage 228 or communicate the operating data to the server 140 via the network 130 for recordation in the database 146 (block 424). The operating data may include the settings or configuration information, the sensor data, and/or the communication data discussed above. In some embodiments, operating data related to normal autonomous operation of the vehicle 108 may be recorded. In other embodiments, only operating data related to incidents of interest may be recorded, and operating data related to normal operation may not be recorded. In still other embodiments, operating data may be stored in the data storage 228 until a sufficient connection to the network 130 is established, but some or all types of incident information may be transmitted to the server 140 using any available connection via the network 130.

The controller 204 may then determine whether operation of the vehicle 108 remains ongoing (block 426). In some embodiments, the method 400 may terminate when all autonomous operation features are disabled, in which case the controller 204 may determine whether any autonomous operation features remain enabled. When the vehicle 108 is determined to be operating (or operating with at least one autonomous operation feature enabled), the method 400 may continue through blocks 406-426 until vehicle operation has ended. When the vehicle 108 is determined to have ceased operating (or is operating without autonomous operation features enabled), the controller 204 may record the completion of operation (block 428), either in the data storage 228 or the database 146. In some embodiments, a second timestamp corresponding to the completion of vehicle operation may likewise be recorded, as above.

Exemplary Methods of Mapping Suitability of Autonomous Operation

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary autonomous operation suitability mapping method 500 for determining the suitability of various locations for autonomous and/or semi-autonomous operation of vehicles. The method 500 may be used to obtain and process data from multiple sources to determine suitability of locations such as road segments for various degrees of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle operation. For example, operating data from a plurality of autonomous vehicles may be used to determine whether each of a plurality of road segments may be safely traversed by vehicles using particular autonomous operation features or technologies. Such plurality of vehicles may include a fleet of vehicles commonly owned, operated, or controlled or otherwise operated in a coordinated manner by one or more parties (e.g., a fleet of taxi cabs, delivery vehicles, etc.). This information regarding whether autonomous vehicles may safely operate in various autonomous or semi-autonomous modes along particular roadways may further be used to establish permissions or recommendations regarding the roadways for autonomous operation feature use by other vehicles. For example, a control system of an autonomous vehicle 108 may not allow (e.g., may disable) aspects of autonomous or semi-autonomous operation along road segments rated below a minimum threshold safety level for the use of relevant autonomous operation features.

The method 500 may begin by receiving operating data from a plurality of autonomous vehicles (block 502) and map data including a plurality of road segments from a map database (block 504). The operating data may be associated with the road segments based upon GPS or other location indications of the operating data (block 506). The method 500 may then process the operating data to analyze each of a number of road segments. A road segment may be identified for analysis (block 508), and risks associated with a level of autonomous or semi-autonomous operation on the road segment may be determined (block 510). From such determinations, one or more autonomous operation scores may be calculated for the road segment (block 512) and stored for further use (block 514). The method 500 may then check whether additional road segments remain to be analyzed (block 516). When no further road segments remain to be analyzed, the method 500 may (in some embodiments) generate an electronic map based upon the calculated scores for the road segments (block 518). Generating the electronic map may include generating graphical map tiles, overlay tiles in a map database, or data entries in a map database to store the electronic map data for further use in generating a visible map or for autonomous vehicle navigation. The generated electronic map (or portions thereof) may be displayed or presented to a user to aid in vehicle operation or route selection, in some embodiments.

At block 502, an external computing device 186 (such as a server 140) may receive operating data from a plurality of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles 182 (such as the vehicle 108). The operating data may be received via a Data Application running on a mobile device 110 and/or on-board computer 114. In some embodiments, operating data may be received from both autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles 182. In further embodiments, this data may be supplemented with data from additional sources. Such additional sources may include databases of road or other environmental conditions (e.g., weather conditions, construction zones, traffic levels, estimated travel times, etc.), databases of vehicle collisions (e.g., insurance claims, insurance losses, police reports, etc.), or other databases of relevant information. For example, the additional data may include data regarding vehicle accidents, collisions, or other loss events obtained from a database maintained by an insurer or a governmental agency. In some embodiments, further data may include information regarding other hazardous events, regardless of whether a loss was incurred. Such hazardous events may include not only accidents and other events causing damage, but also occurrences of loss of control, hard braking or acceleration (i.e., beyond a threshold level of force in the direction of travel), hard swerving (i.e., beyond a threshold level of force in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel), or near collisions (i.e., times when a vehicle came within an unsafe distance of another object). Regardless of the source, the data received may be associated with geographic locations. Such associations may be indicated by geospatial coordinates (e.g., GPS position), relative location data (e.g., street addresses, intersections, etc.), or area indications (e.g., cities, counties, types of roads, etc.).

At block 504, the external computing device 186 (such as a server 140) may similarly receive map data indicating a plurality of known road segments. The map data may be obtained upon requesting such data from a map database storing roadway data. For example, a map database may include a plurality (frequently thousands or millions, depending upon the geographic scope of the database) of line segments indicated by geopositioning coordinates of the endpoints of the segments. The road segments may individually include only portions of a stretch of roadway (e.g., a block, a quarter mile, etc.), which interconnect to form a representation of a roadway system or network. In some embodiments, such map data may be obtained from a third party as a copy of a database or via access through an Application Program Interface (API). The map data (and the operating data discussed above) may be received for a limited geographic area for which road segments are to be evaluated.

At block 506, the external computing device 186 (such as a server 140) may associate the received operating data with the road segments in the received map data. This may include converting one or both types of the received data (viz., the operating data and the map data) to a common location identification system. For example, part of the operating data may include street addresses or intersections, which may be converted into GPS coordinates for matching with the road segment data. In some embodiments, some road segments may be grouped or combined into relevant segments. For example, several segments of a long and winding road between intersections may be combined to facilitate more efficient analysis because visual mapping of the road segments may be irrelevant to the evaluation. The road segment data and the operating data may further be associated by a cross-reference table, by merging the data, or using other known data management techniques. In some embodiments, the operating data may not be associated with the road segments until each relevant road segment is selected for analysis, which may be more efficient when a small number of road segments are to be rated.

Once the operating data has been associated with the map data, one or more road segments may be analyzed to determine risks associated with autonomous or semi-autonomous operation thereupon. Blocks 508-516 may be repeated in a loop until all road segments (or all road segment selected for analysis) have been analyzed and scored. In some embodiments, not all road segments in the received map data will be analyzed. For example, road segments for which no corresponding operating has been received may not be analyzed. Similarly road segments for which too little operating data has been received (e.g., less than a threshold number of independent data points, less than a threshold number of separate vehicle trips associated with the road segment, etc.) may not be analyzed. In some such embodiments, such unanalyzed road segments may nonetheless receive a default score or flag indicative of their unanalyzed status. In other embodiments, such as where the method 500 is used to update existing autonomous operation suitability map data, such unanalyzed road segments may retain their previously assigned score and other data. As another example, a subset of the received road segments may be selected for analysis, either by a user or automatically. A user may select a group of road segments to analyze or may select characteristics of road segments to generate a group (e.g., by selecting road segments within a geographic area, highway road segments, urban area road segments, etc.). Alternatively, a group of road segments may be automatically identified for analysis upon the occurrence of an event, such as a request from a vehicle 108 for data near the vehicle's current position or along a route.

At block 508, the external computing device 186 (such as a server 140) may identify a particular road segment from the map data to analyze. The road segment may be identified by its position in a list of road segments, which may be sorted or unsorted. In some embodiments, an index or counter may be used to indicate the next road segment to be analyzed. When the road segment is identified, the operating data and any other data associated with the road segment may be accessed, copied, or moved into volatile memory to facilitate analysis.

At block 510, the external computing device 186 (such as a server 140) may determine one or more risk levels associated with the road segment. Machine learning techniques (e.g., support vectors, neural networks, random forests, naïve Bayesian classifiers, etc.) may be used to identify or estimate the magnitude of salient risk factors associated with autonomous operation feature use on the road segment. Such risk factors may include time of day, weather conditions, traffic conditions, speed, type of vehicle, types of sensors used by the vehicle, types of autonomous operation features in use, versions of autonomous operation features, interactions between autonomous operation features, autonomous operation feature settings or configurations, driver behavior, or other similar factors that may be derived from the data. Alternatively, statistical regression using a set of predetermined models may be used to estimate the effects of selected risk factors determinable from the data. In either case, the external computing device 186 may use the determined effects of the risk factors to further determine one or more risks associated with autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle operation on the road segment.

The one or more risk levels may include summary levels associated with groupings of combinations of risk factors, such as fully autonomous operation or semi-autonomous operation in which the driver actively steers the vehicle. In some embodiments, a risk level may be determined for each autonomous operation feature or category of autonomous operation features (which risk level may ignore or assume a default effect of interactions between autonomous operation features). In further embodiments, average risk levels for the road segment may be determined for a small number of categories of general levels of autonomous operation, such as the NHTSA's five categories of vehicle automation (ranging from category 0 with no autonomous operation through category 4 with fully autonomous operation). Of course, the quantity of operating data available for the road segment will affect the level of detail at which risk levels may be determined, both in terms of specificity of the risk levels and the number of separate risk levels determined for the road segment. In a preferred embodiment, operating data from a large number of vehicle trips along the road segment (i.e., hundreds or thousands of separate vehicle trips by at least several types of autonomous vehicles using different types and settings of autonomous operation features) may be used to determine risk levels associated with a plurality of autonomous operation feature use levels, configurations, and settings for a plurality of types of autonomous vehicles in various environmental conditions.

At block 512, the external computing device 186 (such as a server 140) may calculate one or more scores for autonomous or semi-autonomous operation associated with the road segment (i.e., suitability scores). This may include determining a score representing a risk level category (e.g., a score of 5 indicating high risk, a score of 4 indicating medium-high risk, a score of 1 indicating low risk, a score of 0 indicating that the road segment has not been analyzed, etc.) based upon a risk level determined as discussed above. The score may similarly represent a maximum recommended (or permitted) level of autonomous operation feature use on the road segment, which may depend upon environmental conditions or other factors as discussed above. In some embodiments, the score may be constrained by a statutory proscription regarding levels or types of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle feature use on the road segment (e.g., limitations on fully autonomous operation in certain locations), information regarding which may be obtained from one or more servers associated with government agencies or other sources. Thus, the scores may indicate recommended or allowed autonomous operation feature usage or usage levels for road segments or areas.

In further embodiments, the score may indicate an adjustment factor for an insurance policy metric, such as a premium or deductible. For example, a high-risk usage profile along the road segment may be associated with an adjustment factor greater than one (indicating an increase in a cost due to the high-risk usage), while a low-risk usage profile along the road segment may be associated with an adjustment factor less than one (indicating a lower cost due to low-risk usage). In some embodiments, scores for a plurality of road segments along a vehicle route may be used to determine a cost, estimate, or quote for a usage-based insurance charge, premium, or other cost, which may be presented to a vehicle operator at the time of route selection to assist in selecting a route based upon safety, speed, cost, or other considerations.

Once the one or more scores are calculated, they may be stored in program memory 160 or database 146 (block 514). At block 516, the external computing device 186 may then determine whether there remain any further road segments to be analyzed. If additional road segments are to be analyzed, the method 500 may continue by identifying another road segment at block 508. If no additional road segments are to be analyzed, the method 500 may continue to block 518. In some embodiments, block 518 may be excluded, in which case the method 500 may terminate when no additional road segments are to be analyzed.

At block 518, the external computing device 186 (such as a server 140) may generate an electronic map in some embodiments. The electronic map may comprise a plurality of map tiles including indications of the scores of road segments. In some embodiments, the map tiles may be overlay to be superimposed upon other map tiles to indicate scores of road segments. In further embodiments, the electronic map may include map tiles indicating only road segments for which one or more autonomous operation features (e.g., a set of particular autonomous operation features, particular types of autonomous operation features, or particular levels of autonomous operation features) may be safely used (i.e., road segments meeting a minimum score threshold for safe use of the relevant autonomous operation features). In embodiments in which map tiles or overlay map tiles are generated, such tiles may be generated either as needed or in advance, but it is preferable to generate such tiles in advance because of the processing time and resources required to generate such tiles. In other embodiments, the electronic map may comprise an autonomous operation suitability map database of one or more scores (preferably a plurality of scores) for each road segment. Such database may be accessed to determine autonomous or semi-autonomous routes for vehicles, as discussed elsewhere herein. In some embodiments, the electronic map (or portions thereof) may be communicated to a user device (e.g., the mobile device 110) to be displayed to a user.

Exemplary Autonomous Vehicle Routing Methods

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary autonomous vehicle routing method 600 for determining a route between predetermined locations to provide autonomous vehicle navigation support. The method 600 may be used to identify and avoid locations where it may be difficult or dangerous for the vehicle 108 to use autonomous operation features. For example, autonomous operation may be unpredictable or hazardous when the vehicle encounters unexpected or temporary traffic patterns, such as temporary lane shifts during construction. In certain circumstances, it may be desirable to determine routes that avoid or minimize travel along road segments that are unsuitable for autonomous operation feature use. The method 600 may be implemented to determine routes that allow safe and fully autonomous travel (or any desired level of autonomous feature use).

The method 600 may begin by receiving a first geospatial location (block 602) and a destination geospatial location (block 604). Minimum requirements for the route may be determined (block 606.) Relevant map data associated with autonomous operation scores of road segments may then be accessed (block 608), such as from an autonomous operation suitability map database, and the map data may then be used to identify road segments within the relevant map data meeting the minimum requirements (block 610). The identified road segments may be examined to determine whether at least one path between the first geospatial position and the destination geospatial position exists (block 612). If no such path exists that meets the minimum requirements, one or more parameters of the routing method may be adjusted (block 614) until such path exists. When one or more paths are determined to exist, an optimal route between the first geospatial position and the destination geospatial position may be determined (block 616). An indication of the optimal route may then be provided to a mapping or navigation system for use in controlling the vehicle (block 618). The method 600 may be performed by a server 140, by a mobile device 110 and/or on-board computer 114, or by a combination of such components communicating via network 130. Although the description below is presented using a mobile device 110 and server 140 for simplicity, the description below may be easily modified for implementation by other systems including one or more of a mobile device 110, on-board computer 114, or server 140.

At block 602, the mobile device 140 may receive a first geospatial position. The mobile device 140 may further receive a destination geospatial position at block 604. The geospatial positions may be received as GPS or similar coordinates, street addresses, intersections, or any other indication of a specific location. In some embodiments, the first geospatial position may be received from a GPS unit 206 of the mobile device 110. Such GPS data may indicate the current location of the vehicle 108 or a location of a user, such as a location from which the user wishes to depart. Alternatively, the user may select the first geospatial position by indicating a starting location of the route, such as by entering an indication of the first geospatial position into the mobile device 110. The user may similarly select the destination geo spatial location directly or indirectly. As an example of indirect selection, the user may indicate that travel to a type of location (e.g., a gas station, a hospital, etc.) is desired, from which the mobile device 110 may determine the destination geospatial location via communication with a map service via network 130. In some embodiments, both the first geospatial location and the destination geospatial location may be determined automatically in response to detected conditions, as described further below. In further embodiments, either or both of the first and destination geospatial locations may be identified or selected from a plurality of received common locations or routes for a fleet of vehicles, such as frequent origin or destination locations for a fleet of personal transportation, commercial delivery, or other vehicles 108.

At block 606, the minimum requirements for the route may be determined by the mobile device 110. The minimum requirements may relate to the acceptable range of scores for road segments along the route, such as requiring a minimum score for each road segment. Such minimum requirements may be selected by the user or may be automatically determined based upon conditions of vehicle operation. For example, the user may request a route suitable for fully autonomous operation. As another example, automatic emergency operation may require fully autonomous operation throughout the route. In some embodiments, the user may specify different minimum requirements for different types of road segments. For example, the user may require fully autonomous operation on highway road segments, but may allow semi-autonomous operation on residential street road segments. In further embodiments, a user profile may be created to indicate general user preferences regarding minimum route requirements, which may vary by time, location, weather, other environmental conditions, or whether the vehicle is operating in an emergency mode. For example, the user profile may indicate that a user prefers fully autonomous operation during weekday rush-hour operation. As another example, a user profile associated with a new driver may require fully autonomous operation after a certain time or in inclement weather.

At block 608, the mobile device 110 may communicate the geospatial locations and minimum requirements to the server 140 via the network 130, causing the server 140 to access relevant map data from one or more databases 146. In some embodiments, the mobile device 110 may communicate additional information to the server 140 to facilitate determination of an optimal route. Such additional information may include details regarding available types, configurations, settings, and operating status of autonomous operation features (which may include information regarding sensors 120 or software versions). Part or all of the additional information may be stored in a vehicle profile within the database 146 to reduce data transmission over the network. The relevant map data may be limited to road segments in a predefined or algorithmically determined distance from the geospatial locations. For example, the map data may be accessed for the smallest map tile in the map database that includes both the first and destination geospatial positions. Because the conditions of the operating environment (e.g., time of day, traffic levels, weather, construction, etc.) impact the effectiveness of the autonomous operation features, the server 140 may determine the condition of the relevant operating environment and access the map data associated with operation within the relevant operating environment. For example, map data relating to autonomous or semi-autonomous operation of vehicles on road segments at night may be accessed if the route is to be traveled at night, while corresponding road segment data associated with daytime travel may be ignored as irrelevant.

At block 610, the server 140 may identify the road segments meeting the minimum requirements for types and/or levels of autonomous operation feature use from the accessed map data. This may include selecting road segments from the accessed map data that match multiple facets of the minimum requirements, such as meeting the separate minimum requirements for the operation of a plurality of autonomous operation features. Thus, the set of road segments identified as meeting the minimum requirements may be the intersection of the sets of road segments that meet each facet of the minimum requirements. In some embodiments, considerations of legal proscriptions regarding use of autonomous operation features on road segments may be used to determine whether such road segments meet the minimum requirements. For example, some road segments may generally meet the minimum requirements but may ban or require certain autonomous operation feature use during certain periods (e.g., weekday rush hour periods).

At block 612, the server 140 may determine whether at least one route exists that forms a connected path between the first geospatial location and the destination geospatial location along the identified road segments that meet the minimum requirements. This may include iteratively checking road segments until either a connecting path is found or all road segments have been checked. In some embodiments, this may include a preliminary step of determining whether both the first and destination geospatial positions lie along road segments that meet the minimum requirements, which may be used to quickly determine that no suitable route exists if one or both geospatial locations are not upon a road segment meeting the minimum requirements. If at least one path between the first and destination geospatial locations is found, the method 600 may continue with determining an optimal route (block 616). If no paths meeting the minimum requirements are found, the method 600 may instead attempt to adjust the parameters (block 614) to find a suitable route. Once the parameters have been adjusted (block 614), the method 600 may continue by accessing map data using the new parameters (block 608). Alternatively, the method 600 may notify the user that no suitable route exists or may terminate with an error message if no suitable path is found.

At block 614, the server 140 may adjust one or more parameters in an attempt to find a route suitable for the requested type of autonomous or semi-autonomous operation. This may include adjusting the minimum requirements to include road segments that are near the original minimum requirements (e.g., within 5% of the original minimum score threshold). If a legal proscription against certain types or levels of autonomous operation along particular road segments exists, however, such road segments may be separately treated as unavailable for adjustment. In some embodiments, the adjusted parameters may be parameters other than the minimum requirements. Such other parameters may include distance from the first and destination geospatial locations, use of toll roads, or similar parameters involving the scope of the accessed the map data. For example, additional map data tiles may be included, such as overlapping or larger map data tiles. This may correspond to driving generally away from the destination geospatial location before traveling towards it. Although such routes may be longer, the additional road segments may facilitate travel in a manner that meets the minimum requirements everywhere along the route.

In further embodiments, adjusting the parameters may include allowing for the inclusion of short distances of road segments that may be suitable for significantly less autonomous or semi-autonomous operation. For example, road segments of less than one mile that connect on both ends to road segments meeting the minimum requirements (or that connect to or contain the first or destination geospatial locations) may be included, even if such road segments are not suitable for any autonomous operation feature use (or are suitable for only the lowest levels of such feature use). This may allow the driver to travel most of the trip autonomously using an efficient route, but the route may require the driver to take control for a short distance (e.g., while passing through a construction zone).

Similarly, in instances in which a suitable route cannot be found because the first geospatial location or the destination geospatial location are not located along a road segment that meets the minimum requirements, a substitute geospatial location along a road segment that meets the minimum requirements may be determined. Such substitute geospatial position may be used to determine routes between a substitute first geospatial position and the destination geospatial position, between the first geospatial position and a substitute destination geospatial position, or between a substitute first geospatial position and a substitute destination geospatial position. For example, a pick-up or drop-off location requested by the user may be adjusted to facilitate autonomous or semi-autonomous operation along a route of road segments meeting the minimum requirements.

Once at least one route is found that forms a connected path between the first geospatial location and the destination geospatial location along the identified road segments that meet the minimum requirements, the server 140 may determine one or more optimal routes between the geospatial positions at block 616. Where substitute geospatial positions have been determined, of course, the route will use such substitute geospatial positions as origin or terminal points. Routes may be optimized relative to metrics such as time, distance, total risk, continuity of progress (i.e., avoiding stops), amount of fully autonomous operation, amount of manual operation, amount of operation at or above the minimum requirements, fuel use, and/or other metrics. For example, the optimized route may maximize a distance or an amount of time that the autonomous vehicle travels in autonomous mode, or the optimized route may minimize a distance or time that the autonomous vehicle travels in manual mode. In some instances, a unique optimal route may be determined, while other instances may identify multiple optimal routes that are equivalent (or within statistical margins of error) for the relevant one or more metrics. The optimal route may be the safest route, the route associated with a least amount of pedestrian traffic or cross walks, the quickest route, the shortest route, or the route with most highway driving.

The optimal route may include the highest percentage of autonomous feature usage or autonomous mode operation, or may include 95% to 100% autonomous mode operation along the route. The optimal route may be the shortest route (in time or mileage) that includes the highest percentage of autonomous feature usage or autonomous mode operation. The optimal route may be the shortest route (in time or mileage) that includes a percentage of autonomous feature usage or autonomous mode operation over a predetermined threshold, such as 50%, 60%, 75%, 80%, or 90%. The optimal route may be the shortest route (in time or mileage) that includes 100% autonomous feature usage or autonomous mode operation over the route. The optimal route may similarly be a route associated with the lowest risk, or the fastest or shortest route below a maximum tolerable risk threshold. The risk may be determined based upon a risk profile for the vehicle 108 and/or a user profile for the vehicle operator.

Some embodiments may include determining a plurality of optimal routes, each of which optimizes some set of one or more metrics (e.g., the fastest route, the shortest route, or the cheapest route based upon total costs of operation including fuel, wear, insurance, tolls, etc.). In embodiments in which a route may include one or more road segments where manual operation or semi-autonomous operation is required, the optimal routes may further be determined based at least in part upon the amount of manual or semi-autonomous operation required, or the level of manual or semi-autonomous operation required. In further embodiments, one optimal route may be selected from alternative optimal routes, either by application of automated decision criteria or by receiving a user selection.

At block 618, the server 140 may then provide the determined optimal route (or routes) to the mobile device 110 for use in vehicle navigation. The mobile device 110 may present the optimal route (or routes) to the user for review and approval in some embodiments. For example, one or more optimal routes determined above may be presented to the user via a display 202 associated with the mobile device 110 or on-board computer 114 as recommendations. Such recommendations may include additional information regarding risks, time, or costs associated therewith. For example, costs associated with adjustments to insurance policy premiums, discounts, or other terms may be presented to the user with one or more recommendations. In further embodiments, the optimal route may be communicated to the on-board computer 114 of the vehicle 108 to cause the vehicle 108 to operate autonomously along the optimal route, such as in emergency situations or when a fully autonomous trip is requested. In still further embodiments, presenting the optimal route or routes may include generating notifications of where (and when) autonomous mode or manual mode is required or recommended along individual routes or roads, such as notifications of (1) when or where the driver should manually operate/drive the autonomous vehicle, (2) when or where the autonomous system should drive or control the autonomous vehicle, and/or (3) when or where certain autonomous features or system should be engaged or utilized, and at which setting or configuration individual autonomous systems or features should be engaged. In some embodiments, the optimal route may be further used to determine a cost, estimate, or quote for a usage-based insurance charge, premium, or other cost, which may be presented to a vehicle operator at the time of route selection to assist in selecting a route based upon safety, speed, cost, or other considerations. Vehicle use may further be monitored to determine whether the recommended optimal route is followed, which may be used to adjust risk levels and/or costs associated with insurance accordingly.

Automatic Feature Usage Optimization

Information regarding the suitability of road segments for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle operation may also be used to maintain proper feature usage automatically during operation. As a vehicle traverses various road segments and as conditions change, the optimal usage levels of autonomous operation features (i.e., the settings and configurations that are most efficient, safest, etc.) may likewise change. For example, some roads segments may be designated as unsuitable for higher levels of autonomous operation, while other roads or portions thereof may require a minimum level of autonomous operation (such as major commuter arteries during rush hour periods). Without road-segment specific information regarding suitability (as discussed above), the autonomous operation features simply continue to operate using the most recently specified settings until adjusted by a vehicle operator. Adjusting the settings associated with autonomous operation features (including enabling or disabling features) is time-consuming, and doing so may also be hazardous when the vehicle operator is in partial control of a vehicle operating in a semi-autonomous mode. Even when the vehicle operator has sufficient information and is able to safely adjust the usage levels during operation, such adjustments made through a user interface result in a delay from user control. Thus, the automatic methods of adjusting or configuring autonomous operation feature usage levels described herein improve upon existing techniques.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary automatic usage optimization method 700 for monitoring and adjusting autonomous operation feature usage levels of a vehicle 108 having a plurality of autonomous operation features. The method 700 may begin by receiving autonomous operation suitability data for a plurality of road segments (block 702), which may form a route the vehicle 108 will traverse. While vehicle operation continues, vehicle operation may be monitored for each road segment along which the vehicle 108 travels (block 704), which may include obtaining vehicle operating data relating to location and environmental conditions. Based upon the monitored vehicle operating data and the suitability data, appropriate usage levels for one or more autonomous operation features may be determined (block 706), which may include only optimal settings or may include other allowable settings. The determined appropriate usage levels may be compared against current usage levels to determine whether adjustments are needed (block 708). When the current usage levels are not appropriate for the road segment and conditions, the usage levels of the one or more autonomous operation features may be automatically adjusted to appropriate levels (block 710). Such adjustments may include enabling or disabling features, as well as adjusting settings associated with the features. Once the usage levels are at appropriate levels, the method may check whether the vehicle 108 has reached the end of its route or whether operation is ongoing (block 712). The method 700 may then continue to monitor vehicle operation and adjust usage levels as needed (blocks 704-710) until the vehicle operation is determined to be discontinued (block 712), at which point the method may terminate. Although the method 700 is described herein as being implemented by an on-board computer 114 of the vehicle 108, other components may implement part or all of the method, such as a mobile device 110 within the vehicle 108 and/or a server 140 communicating with the vehicle 108 via a network 130.

At block 702, the on-board computer 114 may receive suitability data relating to autonomous operation features usage for a plurality of road segments. The suitability data may include risk levels or suitability scores indicating the suitability or permissibility of autonomous operation feature usage for the road segments. The suitability data may be included in map data received from a map database or map server via the network 130, either directly or through a mobile device 110. Such map data may further include location data associated with each of the plurality of road segments (such as GPS data), which may be used to identify current road segments where the vehicle 108 is currently located during operation. The map data may be received with or without graphical map tile data, in various embodiments. The suitability data may be received for the plurality of road segments based upon a route of the vehicle 108, such as a route determined by the methods described elsewhere herein. Alternatively, suitability data may be received for a plurality of road segments in proximity to the current location of the vehicle 108 (e.g., all road segments within a predetermined distance of the current location). The suitability data may be requested by the on-board computer 114 or may be received from a database without a request. In some embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may store the suitability data in the program memory 208 for use throughout a vehicle trip or multiple vehicle trips. For example, the on-board computer 114 may store suitability data for a plurality of road segments in an area of frequent operation of the vehicle 108 for repeated use over a period of time, which stored suitability data may be updated periodically by communication with a server 140. The on-board computer 114 may then access the map data as needed.

Although the exemplary method 700 describes an embodiment in which the suitability data is obtained for a plurality of road segments in advance of use, alternative embodiments may obtain the suitability data for each road segment as the vehicle operates. Thus, the suitability data may only be received for current road segments (or immediately upcoming road segments) in some embodiments. One of ordinary skill in the art will understand that such modification to the method 700 may be made by simply obtaining the suitability data for each road segment separately based upon an indication of the location of the vehicle 108, such as by accessing a remote database of map data to obtain the suitability data based upon current vehicle locations.

At block 704, the on-board computer 114 may monitor operation of the vehicle 108 during operation. Such monitoring may include collecting operating data for the vehicle 108, or it may be limited to monitoring location, current autonomous operation feature usage levels, and one or more environmental conditions in the vehicle operating environment. The location of the vehicle 108 may be determined using the GPS unit 206 or other geolocation components within the vehicle (including geolocation components within the mobile device 108). An indication of such location may be used to determine the current road segment the vehicle is traversing along a route. For example, the vehicle 108 may be proceeding along a route between origin and destination locations, which route may include a plurality of connecting road segments. The operation of the vehicle 108 may be monitored in part using the sensors 120 within the vehicle 108 to determine location and environmental conditions, such as weather, traffic, construction, or other conditions. In some embodiments, the sensors 120 may also monitor a vehicle operator to determine condition of the vehicle operator (e.g., attentiveness, distraction, drowsiness, impairment, etc.), which may be used to determine the relative risks of manual and autonomous operation. In further embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may further determine a status of the one or more autonomous operation features, which may include an evaluation of whether the autonomous operation features are functioning properly, damaged, or inoperable. Similar status or quality determinations may be made for sensors 120 used by the autonomous operation features, the status of which may impact the effectiveness of the features in controlling the vehicle 108.

At block 706, the on-board computer 114 may determine appropriate usage levels for the one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle 108 for the current road segment under current operating conditions. The on-board computer 114 may identify the current road segment from the plurality of road segments based upon the determined current location of the vehicle 108 and the location data associated with each of the plurality of road segments for which suitability data was received. This may include accessing stored map data and selecting the road segment associated with GPS coordinates matching the current GPS coordinates of the vehicle 108. In some embodiments, an upcoming road segment may additionally or alternatively be determined based upon the current location of the vehicle 108 and information regarding a route of the vehicle 108. The information regarding the route may include a full route for a vehicle trip or information regarding a likelihood of the vehicle 108 following a particular route, such as a prediction based upon prior vehicle operation or based upon an assumption that the vehicle 108 will continue to follow the road along an additional road segment. For example, a section of limited access highway may cover multiple road segments having differing risk or suitability for autonomous operation, such as a bridge that may present difficulties for some autonomous operation features. Analysis of upcoming road segments may be beneficial in order to provide advance warning to the vehicle operator if manual operation is required.

The current operating conditions may include environmental conditions and other monitored conditions associated with the vehicle 108 (e.g., autonomous operation feature status, vehicle operator condition, etc.). Such environmental conditions may include weather, traffic, construction, time of day, day of week, season, or other environmental factors that may affect risk levels associated with operation of the vehicle 108 on the road segment. The current operating conditions may similarly include other non-environmental conditions, such as conditions relating to the vehicle operator's current state or capability for manually operating the vehicle or the status of one or more components of the vehicle that may affect the autonomous operation features' quality or reliability in controlling the vehicle 108.

Determining the appropriate usage levels for the autonomous operation features of the vehicle 108 may include determining one or more usage levels that are optimal in terms of risk, speed, user preferences, or other metrics, which optimal usage levels may be determined based upon the suitability data for the road segment and the current operating conditions. Such optimal usage levels may be determined by comparison of metrics determined for the current usage levels and each of a plurality of alternative usage levels to identify one or more that maximize or minimize a relevant metric or a weighted combination of metrics. In particularly preferred embodiments, determining the appropriate usage levels may include determining one or more settings associated with the one or more autonomous operation features that minimize risk based upon the road segment suitability data and the current operating conditions. The appropriate usage levels may be determined using constrained optimization techniques, where allowed usage levels for the road segment or minimum levels of autonomous operation based upon vehicle operator condition may constrain the range of usage level within which operation may be optimized.

In some embodiments, more than one usage level may optimize operating criteria, such as where the risk levels associated with different combinations of settings are identical, such as where the risk levels associated with the different combinations of settings are below a threshold generally associated with safe operation, or where the difference in risk levels are within a predetermined threshold. When a plurality of combinations of settings are associated with optimal usage levels, a secondary metric may be used to determine in part one of the combinations as the optimal usage level. Such secondary metrics may include a measure of statistical variance in risk levels associated with the combinations. Alternatively, a plurality of optimal usage levels may all be identified as appropriate usage levels and used to determine whether adjustments to the current usage levels are required.

The appropriate usage levels may alternatively be determined as one or more usage levels that meet operational requirements for the road segment of interest (i.e., the current road segment or upcoming road segment). Such operational requirements may include legal restrictions against or requirements for certain levels of autonomous operation of vehicles along the road segment, which may be based upon governmental regulations or contractual obligations (e.g., insurance policy covenants or warranty limitations). Such operational requirements may similarly include minimum safety levels, minimum or maximum autonomous operation levels, or other metrics specified in a user profile.

At block 708, the on-board computer 114 may next determine whether the current usage levels are consistent with the determined appropriate usage levels. This determination may include determining whether the current settings of the one or more autonomous operation features match the settings of an optimal usage level or other appropriate usage levels. Where multiple appropriate usage levels have been determined, the appropriate usage level requiring the fewest changes in settings or the least noticeable changes in settings may be selected. Thus, if the current settings match the settings associated with an appropriate usage level, the on-board computer 114 may determine that the current usage levels are appropriate. Otherwise, the on-board computer 114 may determine one or more usage level changes corresponding with changes to settings of at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle 108 by comparing the current settings against the settings associated with an appropriate usage level. When one or more usage level changes have been determined to be necessary, the method may proceed to implement such changes at block 710.

At block 710, the on-board computer 114 may adjust the settings of the at least one autonomous operation feature to implement the one or more determined usage level changes. The settings may be automatically adjusted by the on-board computer 114 to match the selected optimal or otherwise appropriate usage levels without notification to the vehicle operator in some embodiments. When the adjustment would result in manual operation or an increase in manual operation by the vehicle operator, however, the on-board computer 114 may first determine whether the vehicle operator is capable and prepared to assume control. For example, a road segment may require manual operation of the vehicle (or semi-autonomous operation primarily controlled by the vehicle operator). Thus, the on-board computer 114 may determine vehicle operator preparedness for vehicle operation based upon sensor data regarding the state of the vehicle operator. The on-board computer 114 may further present a notification or alert to the vehicle operator prior to adjusting the settings to increase manual control. In some embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may wait until the vehicle operator has acknowledged the alert to hand off control from an autonomous operation feature to the vehicle operator. Because such changeover of control between an autonomous operation feature and the vehicle operator may require a time delay, the on-board computer 114 may determine the change for an upcoming road segment and alert the vehicle operator in advance of reaching the upcoming road segment in some embodiments.

At block 712, the on-board computer 114 may determine whether the vehicle 108 has reached the end of its current route. The end of the route may be determined based upon information indicating an end-point of a route or may be determined by the cessation of vehicle operation (e.g., when the vehicle is parked or shut down). Until the end of the route is reached, the on-board computer 114 may continue to monitor the operation of the vehicle 108 as described above. When the end of the route is determined to be reached, the method 700 may terminate.

Automatic Feature Usage Restrictions

Vehicle operators may vary in their levels of experience operating vehicles, impairment levels, or ability to effectively monitor and respond to conditions while manually controlling vehicles. For example, new drivers may be capable of safely piloting a vehicle in good weather in light traffic, but they may lack the ability to safely drive in more challenging conditions. As another example, drivers with poor eyesight may be significantly less safe when driving at night or in inclement weather. Further, vehicle operators or owners may wish to prevent manual operation when by operators who are impaired (e.g., drowsy, distracted, or intoxicated). Existing systems and methods allow vehicles to be generally limited, such as by using a speed limiter to prevent a vehicle from exceeding a maximum speed or testing a vehicle operator's breath for the alcohol before allowing the vehicle to be started. These existing techniques do not distinguish between multiple users of the same vehicle, nor do they adjust to the changing conditions within which the vehicle operates. The methods described herein, however, can be used to automatically adjust vehicle usage restrictions based upon both vehicle operator identity and current conditions. Thus, the methods described herein improve upon the existing techniques by enabling more useful and targeted restrictions on manual vehicle operation than could previously have been implemented.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary manual vehicle control restriction method 800 for limiting manual control of a vehicle 108 capable of varying levels of manual and autonomous operation. The method 800 may begin by identifying the vehicle operator (block 802) and accessing a user profile for the vehicle operator (block 804). During vehicle operation, information regarding the vehicle environment and vehicle operation may be obtained (block 806) and evaluated to determine allowable settings for the one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle 108 based upon the user profile (block 808). Current settings may be compared against the allowable settings to determine whether the current settings are within the range of allowable settings for the vehicle operator under current operating conditions (block 810). When the current settings are not within the range of allowable settings, the settings may be automatically adjusted to comply with the restrictions indicated by the user profile (block 812). Once the settings match the allowable settings, the method may determine whether operation of the vehicle 108 is ongoing (block 814). The method 800 may then continue to monitor vehicle operation and adjust settings as needed (blocks 806-812) until vehicle operation is determined to be discontinued (block 814), at which point the method may terminate. Although the method 800 is described herein as being implemented by an on-board computer 114 of the vehicle 108, other components may implement part or all of the method, such as a mobile device 110 within the vehicle 108 and/or a server 140 communicating with the vehicle 108 via a network 130.

At block 802, the on-board computer 114 may identify the vehicle operator of the vehicle 108. The vehicle operator's identity may be determined based upon a personal electronic key or other personal electronic device associated with the vehicle operator, such as a mobile device 110 (e.g., a smartphone or wearable device). The on-board computer 114 may identify the vehicle operator by recognizing the personal electronic device when connected, such as via a wireless connection (e.g., a Bluetooth® connection). In some embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may receive sensor data regarding the vehicle operator from one or more sensors 120 disposed within the vehicle 108, which sensor data may be used to identify the vehicle operator. For example, image data from a camera may be evaluated to identify the vehicle operator based upon facial features or the vocal profile of the vehicle operator may be used to identify the vehicle operator based upon sound data from a microphone. In other embodiments, the vehicle operator may be identified by receiving a personal identifier indicated by the vehicle operator via an input device associated with the on-board computer 114, which may be a number or user name entered or selected by the vehicle operator.

At block 804, the on-board computer 114 may access a user profile associated with the identified vehicle operator. The user profile may be stored in a program memory 208 of the on-board computer 114 or may be retrieved from a mobile device 110 or server 140. The user profile may store information regarding the vehicle operating, including information regarding general operating ability levels or risk levels. The user profile may likewise store indications of one or more allowed usage levels for the vehicle operator in a plurality of operating conditions (e.g., weather, traffic, time of day, construction, etc.). For example, the user profile for a new driver may indicate that manual operation is prohibited at certain times (e.g., late night and early morning) and during icy conditions (e.g., when the temperature and recent precipitation levels indicate an elevated risk of icy roads). As another example, the user profile may prohibit any manual operation while the vehicle operator is using a mobile device 110, which may include using hands-free telecommunication features to conduct a phone call.

In some embodiments, the user profile may include indications of multiple levels of semi-autonomous vehicle operation in which neither the vehicle operator nor the autonomous operation features completely control vehicle operation. Such semi-autonomous operation levels may be particularly useful for reducing risk while allowing new drivers to gain experience. In further embodiments, the user profile may indicate autonomous operation usage level restrictions by risk levels, which may indicate absolute risk levels or relative risk levels above the risk levels associated with autonomous operation. For example, the user profile may indicate that the vehicle operator is prohibited from manual operation of the vehicle 108 when the risk of an accident from such operation exceeds a full-autonomous threshold, or the vehicle operator may be required to use certain levels or setting of the autonomous operation features during semi-autonomous operation when risk levels exceed corresponding semi-autonomous thresholds. The user profile may also store user preferences, such as preferences for automatically engaging autonomous operation features in certain conditions (e.g., when manual operating risk is high or when in traffic) for the convenience of the vehicle operator.

At block 806, the on-board computer 114 may obtain information regarding the vehicle's operating environment and the operation of the vehicle 108. The environmental information may be collected by the on-board computer 114 from one or more sensors 120 of the vehicle 108, which may be processed to determined one or more environmental conditions. Such environmental conditions may include light levels, location, type of roadway, speed limit, traffic levels, weather conditions, or construction. For example, sensor data from a GPS unit 206 may be used to determine a location, which may further be used to determine a type of roadway. As another example, sensor data from a camera may be used to determine a posted speed limit. Other environmental conditions may include information obtained from sources other than sensors, such as a time of day.

In addition to information regarding the vehicle operating environment, the on-board computer 114 may monitor vehicle operation by the vehicle operator or the autonomous operation features. For example, the quality of control decisions by the autonomous operation features may be evaluated by the on-board computer 114 to determine whether the features are functioning properly or to estimate risk levels based upon autonomous operation feature usage. Such monitoring of autonomous operation feature usage may also include determining current usage levels or settings associated with the one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle 108 in order to ensure compliance with the restrictions indicated by the user profile. In some embodiments, information regarding operation of the vehicle 108 by vehicle operator may be collected for use in updating the user profile, such as by adjusting estimated risk levels associated with manual operation by the vehicle operator under certain environmental conditions. Such information regarding vehicle operation may include sensor data obtained from the sensors 120 of the vehicle 108, such as acceleration data, image data relating to gaze location or mirror checking, or other similar sensor data regarding the movement of the vehicle 108 or the actions of the vehicle operator.

At block 808, the on-board computer 114 may determine one or more allowable usage levels or settings for the autonomous operation features of the vehicle 108 based upon the user profile. This determination may include determining one or more environmental conditions from the environmental data, then determining the allowable usage levels from the user profile based upon the determined environmental conditions. Similarly, the determination may include determining one or more risk levels based upon the environmental conditions or the operating data regarding operation of the vehicle 108, which may be further evaluated to determine one or more risk levels associated with operation of the vehicle 108 under the current conditions. Such risk levels may be used to determine allowable usage levels based upon the indications in the user profile.

In some embodiments, the allowable usage levels may be determined in part by the suitability of the road segment on which the vehicle 108 is currently operating, which may be determined as described elsewhere herein. The on-board computer 114 may identify a current road segment based upon a location of the vehicle 108, obtain suitability information for such road segment, and determine the allowable usage levels either directly or indirectly using the suitability data. For example, the suitability data may constrain the determination of the allowable usage levels by requiring or prohibiting some usage levels. Alternatively, risk levels for the road segment under relevant environmental conditions may be used to determine usage levels that meet risk-based requirements indicated by the user profile. In some embodiments, the allowable usage levels or settings may be determined as one or more ranges of settings or allowable combinations of usage levels or settings for the autonomous operation features.

At block 810, the on-board computer 114 may determine whether the current usage levels or settings associated with the autonomous operation features of the vehicle 108 comply with the determined allowable usage levels or settings. This determination may include determining whether the current settings or other current usage indicators of each of the autonomous operation features match the same combination of allowable usage levels or settings. The determination may similarly include determining whether the current settings or other current usage indicators of each of the autonomous operation features are within one or more ranges associated with the allowable usage levels or settings. When the current usage levels or settings are determined to be compliant with the determined allowable usage levels or settings, the on-board computer 114 may determine whether vehicle operation is continuing at block 814. When the current usage levels or settings are determined not to be compliant with the determined allowable usage levels or settings, the on-board computer 114 may proceed to adjust the usage levels or settings to comply with the allowable usage levels or settings at block 812 before determining whether vehicle operation is continuing at block 814.

At block 812, the on-board computer 114 may adjust at least one autonomous operation feature to comply with the allowable usage levels or settings. To adjust the autonomous operation features, the on-board computer 114 may determine a usage level change associated with the features to be adjusted, indicating changes to usage levels or settings associated with the autonomous operation features to be adjusted based upon the allowable usage levels or settings. In some embodiments, a combination of usage levels or settings associated with the autonomous operation features may be selected from the allowable usage levels or settings that requires the fewest changes or least disruptive changes to current usage levels or settings. Alternatively, the usage level change may be determined as one or more changes to settings associated with the autonomous operation features based at least in part upon risk levels, such as by minimizing risk levels or determining changes to bring risk levels within allowable levels indicated by the user profile.

In determining risk levels, the on-board computer 114 may include information regarding the environmental and other operating conditions in which the vehicle 108 is currently operated. Once the usage level change has been determined, the on-board computer 114 may adjust one or more settings of one or more autonomous operation features based upon the determined usage level change to comply with the allowable usage levels or settings.

At block 814, the on-board computer 114 may determine whether vehicle operation is ongoing. Operation may be determined to be ongoing until the cessation of vehicle operation is detected (e.g., when the vehicle is parked or shut down) or until the vehicle 108 has reached the end of its current route. The end of the route may be determined based upon information indicating an end-point of a route. Until the end of the route is reached, the on-board computer 114 may continue to monitor the operation of the vehicle 108 to ensure compliance with the restrictions or limitations on autonomous operation feature usage indicated by the user profile, as described above at blocks 806-812. Thus, the method 800 may determine whether usage levels comply with the allowable usage levels at each of a plurality of road segments along a route and implement adjustments to the usage levels as need to maintain compliance with the allowable usage levels or settings.

Following completion of vehicle operation, in some embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may update the user profile based upon information obtained during vehicle operation at block 816. The on-board computer 114 may evaluate operating data collected and stored during vehicle operation to determine risk levels, skill levels, or competency levels associated with aspects of manual vehicle operation by the vehicle operator. For example, observations of good driving habits based upon sensor data (e.g., maintaining safe distances from other vehicles or maintaining good lane centering) may be used by the on-board computer 114 to reduce estimated risk levels associated with manual vehicle operation in the user profile. In some embodiments, adjustments to the user profile may be communicated to a server 140 via a network 130 to allow the server 140 to update the user profile. In further embodiments, operating data (or a summary thereof) may be received by the server 140 and used by the server 140 to update the user profile risk levels. In some embodiments, adjustments to indications of allowable usage levels or settings may be made in the updated user profile.

Such changes may be determined based upon experience metrics or risk level thresholds. For example, when risk levels associated with manual operation in icy conditions are sufficiently low, the user profile may be updated to allow partial or fully manual operation in icy conditions. In further embodiments, the user profile may be updated during vehicle operation. The updated user profile may then be used in determining allowable usage levels or settings of autonomous operation feature during future vehicle use by the vehicle operator.

Automatic Vehicle Refueling and Recharging

With information regarding vehicle usage, it is possible to predict and schedule vehicle refueling or recharging without vehicle operator involvement. Such refueling or recharging may be performed when the vehicle is parked or during a vehicle trip (e.g., while passengers are eating lunch). Although refueling of traditional internal combustion vehicles is typically performed quickly, electric vehicles typically require a lengthy period to recharge their batteries. Therefore, scheduling of recharging is particularly advantageous of autonomous electric vehicles. Currently, vehicle operators must manually determine when to refuel or recharge vehicles. To perform such manual refueling or recharging, vehicle operators observe fuel or charge gauges on a vehicle dashboard and estimate when to refuel based upon knowledge or guesses about availability of fueling or charging stations. In the case of electronic vehicles, the vehicle operator must also plan for a lengthy period when the electronic vehicle cannot be used during charging. Because of this, charging has been a significant problem that has hindered the adoption of electronic vehicles. The methods described herein solve the problems associated with refueling or recharging autonomous vehicles by automating the process to be performed at an opportune time and without vehicle operator involvement.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary automatic refueling or recharging method 900 for autonomous vehicles capable of fully autonomous operation. The method 900 may begin, in some embodiments, by detecting that an autonomous vehicle 108 is not currently in use (block 902). In other embodiments, the method 900 may instead begin by detecting a fuel level or battery charge level (block 904), which may involve estimating remaining fuel or charge based upon information from sensors 120 within the vehicle 108. Future use of the vehicle 108 may be predicted (block 906), which may include determining a predicted use profile indicating one or more expected future uses of the vehicle 108. The fuel or battery charge level may be used to determine whether refueling is appropriate based upon a maximum threshold (block 908). When the fuel or battery level charge level is below the maximum threshold, the time available for refueling or recharging may be estimated based upon the predicted future use and evaluated to determine whether sufficient time is available for refueling or recharging (block 910). Even if sufficient time is not available to refuel or recharge the vehicle 108 without interfering with expected vehicle usage, refueling or recharging may nonetheless be performed if the fuel or battery charge levels are determined to be below a minimum threshold (block 912). The vehicle owner or operator may set such maximum and minimum thresholds to avoid completely depleting the fuel tank or battery during operation.

Once refueling or recharging is determined to be appropriate, a time and location for refueling or recharging may be determined (block 914), and a fully autonomous route to the location may be obtained (block 916). At the appropriate time (which may be immediately following receipt of the route information), the vehicle 108 may be controlled fully autonomously along the route to the refueling or recharging location (block 918) and cause the vehicle 108 to refuel or recharge (block 920). Upon completion of refueling or recharging, a fully autonomous return route to a return location may be obtained (block 922), and the vehicle 108 may be controlled fully autonomously along the return route to the return location (block 924). The vehicle 108 may then park at the return location or proceed to a further destination, as directed by a vehicle operator. Although the method 900 is described herein as being implemented by an on-board computer 114 of the vehicle 108, other components may implement part or all of the method, such as a mobile device 110 within the vehicle 108 and/or a server 140 communicating with the vehicle 108 via a network 130.

At block 902, in some embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may detect that the vehicle 108 is not currently in use. In such embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may detect non-use and perform the method 900 whenever the vehicle 108 is parked, shut down, or dropped off for parking. For example, the vehicle 108 may be considered to be not in use after dropping off all passengers and being directed to proceed autonomously to a parking location. In other embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may only perform the method 900 when the vehicle 108 is determined not to be in use at a location associated with longer-duration parking, such as a garage. Embodiments including the determination of the vehicle not being in use may be advantageous in minimizing interference with vehicle use. In alternative embodiments, the method 900 may be performed while the vehicle 108 is in use, such as during an extended vehicle trip.

At block 904, the on-board computer 114 may detect a fuel level or battery charge level of the vehicle 108. A fuel level may be determined for fuel-burning autonomous vehicles, while a battery charge level may be determined for autonomous electric vehicles. This may include detecting a fluid level within a fuel tank or charge information associated with a battery (e.g., voltage or current), which may then be used to determine a fuel level or a battery charge level indicating remaining fuel or charge. In some embodiments in which the vehicle 108 is not in use, the last measurements of fluid level or charge information during vehicle operation may be used without detecting such metrics again while the vehicle is not in use. In embodiments in which the vehicle 108 is in use, the on-board computer 114 may detect the fluid level or charge information and determine the fluid level or battery charge level during operation. In further embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may determine an estimate of maximum remaining use before refueling or recharging in distance or time for the vehicle 108 based upon the fuel level or battery charge level, which may be determined based upon average observed efficiency levels during vehicle operation. Such maximum remaining use estimate may be useful in determining whether refueling or recharging is desirable or necessary.

At block 906, the on-board computer 114 may predict future use of the vehicle 108. Such prediction may be based upon data regarding past vehicle operation, location data, vehicle operator calendar data, route data, or other information related to the vehicle 108 or vehicle operators associated with the vehicle 108. For example, a use profile may be generated during vehicle use to indicate patterns of repeated vehicle use, such as usual commuting routes and hours. Similarly, location data (such as long-term parking at an airport) or calendar data for a vehicle operator (such as a schedule of meetings) may indicate the vehicle will likely not be used for a period of time. In some embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may determine a predicted use profile for the vehicle 108, which may be based upon past use or other data associated with the vehicle 108 or the vehicle operator. The predicted use profile may include one or more indications of expected future uses of the vehicle 108, such as a prediction of the next use or a plurality of expected use periods (i.e., times associated with predicted use of the vehicle 108). The predicted use profile may likewise include probabilities of vehicle use associated with a plurality of time periods (e.g., hours). In some embodiments, the predicted use profile may include predictions of periods of use and non-use over a range of one or more days.

Where the vehicle 108 is currently in use, the predicted use profile may include predictions of use periods and/or non-use period, such as breaks during vehicle operation. Route data may be used to predict such breaks, as the route may indicate the purpose or extend of a current vehicle trip. For example, a long vehicle trip of several hundred miles may be indicated by the route data, from which the on-board computer 114 may predict likely breaks based upon the duration of the trip or information regarding past vehicle trips (e.g., a likely break for lunch). In further embodiments, the predicted use profile may be determined by a server 140 or mobile device 110 upon receipt of a request by the on-board computer 114. The predicted use profile may be communicated back to the on-board computer 114, or the server 140 or mobile device 110 may perform further analysis using an indication of the fuel level or battery charge level from the on-board computer 114.

At block 908, the on-board computer 114 may determine whether the fuel level or battery charge level is below a maximum threshold for refueling or recharging. Such maximum threshold may be predetermined as a percentage of maximum capacity, a distance of vehicle operation, or a time duration of vehicle operation. Alternatively, the maximum threshold may be determined by the on-board computer 114 based upon data regarding a vehicle route. For example, the maximum threshold may be determined as a required level of fuel or battery charge required to complete the route, to which an additional buffer amount may be added for error, delay, or travel to a fueling or charging station upon arrival. For autonomous electric vehicles, excessive recharging of mostly full batteries may also decrease the useful life of the batteries, which the maximum threshold helps avoid. If the fuel level or battery charge level is determined to be at or above the maximum threshold, the method 900 may terminate without refueling or recharging the vehicle 108. Otherwise, the method 900 may continue.

At block 910, the on-board computer 114 may determine whether there is sufficient time to refuel or recharge the vehicle 108 based upon the predicted future use. This may be determined based in part upon travel time, as well as refueling or recharging time. A current location of the vehicle 108 (or a predicted location of the vehicle 108 at an expected stopping point for a break during vehicle operation) may be identified and used to estimate travel time. The fuel level or battery charge level may be used to determine refueling or recharging time. Particularly for autonomous electric vehicles, the recharging time may be significant and may vary considerably based upon the remaining charge of the battery. In some embodiments, the predicted use profile may be used to determine whether the next predicted use of the vehicle allows sufficient time for travel to a refueling or recharging station, refueling or recharging, and return travel. Where the predicted use profile includes probabilities of use, the combined probability over the time required for refueling or recharging may be compared against a probability threshold to determine whether it is sufficiently unlikely that a vehicle operator will want to use the vehicle 108 over the time period. If sufficient time is determined to exist, the on-board computer 114 may proceed with refueling or recharging at blocks 914-924.

In some embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may send a notification or request for confirmation to one or more vehicle operators (or mobile devices 110 associated with the vehicle operators) via the network 130 to obtain confirmation that sufficient time exists to refuel or recharge the vehicle 108 before the next use. The notification or request may include an estimated duration of vehicle unavailability based upon travel time and refueling or recharging time. The on-board computer 114 may wait until a confirmatory response is received to proceed with refueling or recharging in some embodiments.

If sufficient time is determined not to exist for refueling or recharging (or if no response is received from the vehicle operator), the on-board computer 114 may determine whether refueling or recharging is nonetheless necessary. At block 912, the on-board computer 114 may determine whether the fuel level or battery charge level is below a minimum threshold. Such minimum threshold level may be set by the vehicle operator, may indicate a minimum reserve beyond which vehicle operation is discouraged, or may be determined as the minimum fuel or battery charge required to reach a fueling or charging station. When the fuel level or battery charge level is below the minimum threshold, the on-board computer 114 may proceed with refueling or recharging at blocks 914-924, even though such refueling may interfere with predicted vehicle use because the predicted vehicle use would be infeasible with the current fuel or battery charge levels.

At block 914, the on-board computer 114 may identify a time and location for refueling or recharging the vehicle 108. The time and location may be based at least in part upon the predicted future use, such as the predicted use profile. If the vehicle is not in use, the time may be a current time at which the time and location are determined. If the vehicle is in use, the time and location may be determined based upon a predicted break in operation using the predicted use profile. When the vehicle 108 is refueled or recharged during a break in a vehicle trip, the on-board computer 114 may wait to identify the location until the break begins. In either case, the location may be identified as a location associated with a fueling or charging station and may further be based upon fueling or charging station availability. Such availability may be determined by automatic electronic communication via the network 130 between the on-board computer 114 and a remote server associated with the fueling or charging station. In some embodiments, the location of the fueling or charging station may be determined based upon geospatial location data associated with a current or future location of the vehicle 108. In some such embodiments, the on-board computer 114 may obtain GPS data from a GPS unit 206 indicating a current location of the vehicle 108, which may be used to identify one or more fueling or charging stations in proximity to the current location (i.e., within a linear distance, a travel distance, or a travel time). The one or more fueling or charging stations may be identified by accessing a database of stations, which may be stored locally in a program memory 208 or may be a database 146 associated with a server 140 and accessed via the network 130. One of the identified fueling or charging stations may be selected as the location for refueling or recharging based upon distance or time from the current location. Once a location and time for refueling or recharging are determined, a route may be determined and used to control the vehicle 108 to the fueling or charging station.

At block 916, the on-board computer 114 may obtain data indicating a fully autonomous route between a current location and the identified refueling or recharging location. The route may be obtained from a map server 140 via the network 130 or may be determined by the on-board computer 114 or mobile device 110 within the vehicle 108 based upon map data indicating suitability for autonomous operation for a plurality of road segments. The map data may be accessed to obtain information regarding the plurality of road segments to identify a fully autonomous route (i.e., a route the vehicle 108 can traverse using only fully autonomous operation, without manual or semi-autonomous operation) between the current location and the refueling or recharging location, using the routing methods described elsewhere herein. Once the route data is obtained, at block 918, the on-board computer 114 may control the vehicle 108 to travel along the road segments of the route in a fully autonomous mode between the current location and the refueling or recharging location.

At block 920, the on-board computer 114 may cause the vehicle 108 to refuel or recharge upon reaching the refueling or recharging location. Causing the vehicle 108 to refuel or recharge may include causing the vehicle 108 to maneuver to a location in proximity to a refueling or recharging station and automatically electronically communicating with the refueling or recharging station to begin refueling or recharging. In some embodiments, this may include sending a message to the station, in response to which an attendant at the station may refuel the vehicle 108. In other embodiments, this may include directly communicating with a refueling or recharging device to automatically connect the vehicle 108 to the refueling or recharging device. Such connection may be effected via a direct physical connection (e.g., a tube or wire), or it may be a wireless connection for electric vehicle recharging. Once refueling or recharging is complete, the vehicle 108 may return to a return location. In some embodiments, refueling or recharging may be stopped prior to completion by a vehicle operator recall of the vehicle 108, such as by a command from a mobile device 110 of the vehicle operator.

At block 922, the on-board computer 114 may obtain data indicating a fully autonomous route between the refueling or recharging location to a return location. Such return route data may be obtained or determined in a manner similar to that described above. The return location may be the same location from which the vehicle 108 began its autonomous travel to the refueling or recharging location, or the return location may be a distinct location. For example, the vehicle 108 may travel from a drop-off location near an entrance to a building but may return to a parking space in a remote garage, where the vehicle 108 may park until recalled by the vehicle operator. The return location may be determined based upon the predicted use profile or vehicle operator information, such as locations of one or more vehicle operators obtained from mobile devices 110 associated with the vehicle operators. Once the return route data is obtained, at block 924, the on-board computer 114 may control the vehicle 108 to travel along the road segments of the return route in a fully autonomous mode between the refueling or recharging location and the return location. Upon arriving at the return location, the vehicle 108 may park, and the method 900 may terminate.

Automatic Passive Searching

In addition to being used in vehicle control, the sensors 120 within autonomous vehicles 108 may be used to provide information about their surroundings. This data regarding the vehicle environment may be used to passively search for vehicles, people, animals, objects, or other items within the vehicle environment without action by vehicle operators or passengers. By remotely activating sensors 120 or triggering analysis of sensor data being generated for other purposes by a plurality of vehicles, wide areas can be more quickly and effectively searched. This may include causing a plurality of vehicles 108 in an area of interest to automatically obtain and evaluate sensor data based upon search criteria associated with a vehicle, person, or other item of interest. Such automatic searching may be performed at each of the plurality of vehicle in response to information received from a remote server 140 via a network 130, particularly via wireless communication over at least a portion of the network 130. The automatic searching may be performed without notifying or alerting the vehicle operators or passengers of the vehicles 108 by running the evaluation processes in the background during vehicle operation, which may require prior authorization by the vehicle operator or owner. Parked vehicles or other vehicles not currently operating may also be caused to collect and evaluate sensor data in some embodiments.

The methods of automatic passive searching by autonomous vehicles described herein improve upon the existing methods of emergency alerts, such as Amber Alerts™ or emergency bulletins released by law enforcement agencies. Existing methods require active searching by human assessment of items within their environment, which places a cognitive burden on vehicle operators or passengers. This disadvantage of current techniques is compounded by the need for the human searchers to learn information about the search, such as by receiving information via a mobile device 110. Use of such devices is restricted or prohibited while operating vehicles in many situations, and such use is impractical in many additional situations. Even where permissible and practicable, such notification techniques of notifying human searchers suffer delay, limited compliance, and human sensory and data processing limitations. Moreover, human search techniques inherently distract vehicle operators (both while receiving an alert while driving and while scanning the environment for vehicles or people while driving), which increases accident risk in the area of search. The methods described herein improve upon the existing techniques by allowing passive searching by autonomous vehicle sensors, which can be performed without the intervention or knowledge of the vehicle operator and using excess processing capacity of an on-board computer 114 or mobile device 110.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary passive searching method 1000 for automatically searching an area for vehicles, people, or other items using sensor data from a plurality of autonomous vehicles. The passive searching method 1000 may begin upon receiving an indication of passive search parameters at a server 140 (block 1002), which may include information regarding a situation triggering the search. The server 140 may then identify a plurality of vehicles in a search area based upon the passive search parameters (block 1004), which may include receiving location information from a plurality of vehicles. The server 140 may then generate and send an indication of search criteria to each of the identified vehicles 108 (block 1006). The search criteria may include information regarding the search to be performed, such as information regarding one or more target items (e.g., a person or vehicle sought). Upon receiving the indication of search criteria, a controller 204 of an on-board computer 114 or mobile device 110 within the vehicle 108 may collect data from one or more sensors 120 regarding the vehicle's environment (block 1008). The sensor data may then be evaluated by the controller 204 based upon the search criteria associated with the received indication of search criteria (block 1010). When at least part of the sensor data is determined to meet the search criteria (block 1012), the controller 204 may send a response to the server 140 via the network 130 indicating the match with the search criteria (block 1014). Otherwise, the controller 204 may continue to collect and evaluate sensor data until the controller 204 determines to discontinue passively searching for the search criteria (block 1016). In some embodiments, additional, alternative, or fewer actions may be performed, and the actions may be performed by various components of the system 100 in various combinations.

At block 1002, the server 140 may receive an indication of one or more passive search parameters. The indication may be received from a third-party server or from a third-party server (e.g., a server operated by an emergency service provider) or from a user device (e.g., a workstation or an input device). The indication may include information regarding a situation that necessitates the search, as well as the passive search parameters defining a scope of the search (i.e., a location and a target identification or description). For example, the indication may be received from a law enforcement agency or a private security firm as a missing person alert, a missing animal alert, a stolen vehicle alert, a stolen equipment alert, a person of interest alert, or a fugitive person alert. Such alerts may include information regarding a location, such as last known locations or likely destinations or routes. Such alerts may also include information regarding an identity or description of a target (e.g., a person or vehicle of interest), such as identities or descriptions of persons of interest, license plate numbers or descriptions of vehicles (i.e., make, model, color, and/or condition of a vehicle of interest), images of persons or vehicles, biometric data associated with persons of interest. A time associated with the triggering situation, a type of the situation, or other similar information that may indicate parameters of the passive search may also be included.

In some embodiments, the passive search parameters may be directly received in a message or via direct user input. Alternatively, the server 140 may determine one or more passive search parameters based upon the other information received in the indication of the passive search parameters. For example, a search area may be included within the indication (e.g., by specifying a city, county, or other geographical or political subdivision), or a search area may be determined by the server 140 based upon the a location and time associated with the situation (e.g., by determining a radius around the location based upon an assumed speed of travel and the time elapsed). Similarly, biometric data regarding one or more persons of interest may be directly received or may be obtained by the server 140 based upon identifying information regarding the persons, such as by accessing the biometric data from a governmental or other database. Relevant biometric data may include facial features, height, weight, sex, voice, tattoos, other distinguishing features that may be used to identify a person.

At block 1004, the server 140 may identify a plurality of vehicles 108 within the search area received in or based upon the information of the indication of the passive search parameters. To determine the plurality of vehicles within the search area, the server 140 may define the search area in terms of GPS coordinates (e.g., as GPS coordinate ranges). GPS location data may then be obtained or accessed for a plurality of vehicles including the plurality of vehicles within the search area and a plurality of additional vehicles outside the search area. The GPS location data may be obtained by polling the vehicles or may be received without request from the vehicles (e.g., periodically) from a GPS unit 206 of each vehicle. The GPS location data may then be compared with the search area to identify the plurality of vehicles within the search area. In some embodiments, the plurality of vehicles within the search area may further be determined based upon sensor and/or processing capabilities of the vehicles based upon the passive search parameters, such as by limiting the plurality of vehicles to vehicles with sufficiently detailed cameras to accurately perform the search. In some embodiments, the determination may include vehicles that are not currently in the search area but are predicted to enter the search area within a relevant search time period based upon route information associated with the vehicles. For example, the server 140 may have access to route information for the plurality of vehicles, which may be evaluated to determine whether the vehicles will enter or exit the search area over a relevant time period.

At block 1006, the server 140 may generate and send an indication of search criteria to the identified plurality of vehicles 108 via the network 130. The indication of the search criteria may be received by a controller 204 of the vehicle 108, which may be disposed within an on-board computer 114 or a mobile device 110 within the vehicle 108. In some embodiments, the search criteria may be identical to the passive search parameters received or determined by the server 140. Alternatively, the search criteria may be determined or derived by the server 140 from the passive search parameters. For example, the search criteria may specifically describe data to be matched or criteria to be met by the sensor data of the vehicle 108, whereas the passive search parameters may be more general. To determine the search criteria, the server 140 may access one or more lookup tables to determine specific data criteria associated with the passive search parameters. The search criteria may be expressly included within the indication, or the indication may include a reference from which the computing systems of the vehicle 108 may determine the search criteria. For example, the indication of the search criteria may include a reference to a make, model, and color of a target vehicle of interest, which the controller 204 of the vehicle 108 may use to look up information specifying dimensions of the target vehicle based upon the received indication.

Upon receiving the indication of the search criteria, each vehicle 108 of the identified plurality of vehicles may begin monitoring sensor data from one or more sensors 120 based upon the received search criteria. The controller 204 of each vehicle 108 may perform the actions of blocks 1008-1016 until the controller 204 determines to discontinue searching at block 1016. In a preferred embodiment, the actions of blocks 1008-1016 may be performed without notifying or alerting vehicles occupants (i.e., vehicle operators or passengers) of the receipt of the indication of the search criteria or of the performance of such sensor data collection and evaluation. In other embodiments, a notification may be provided to the vehicle operator if desired.

At block 1008, the controller 204 may obtain sensor data by using one or more sensors 120 of the vehicle 108 to collect information regarding the vehicle environment in which the vehicle 108 is located. If the vehicle 108 is currently operating, the controller 204 may access sensor data collected by the sensors 120 for other purposes, such as sensor data generated by the sensors 120 for one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle 108. For example, image data may be generated by one or more cameras or other image generation devices for vehicle steering and collision avoidance. Such image data may be obtained by the controller 204 and used for passive searching, as well. If the vehicle 108 is not currently operating or a sensor 120 is not actively generating data the controller 204 may activate the sensors 120 to begin generating sensor data. For example, controllers 204 of parked vehicles 108 within the search area may activate some sensors 120 to passively monitor the environment based upon the search criteria even though the vehicles 108 are not in use. For such monitoring, the sensors used may be limited to sensors 120 that meet energy efficiency requirements, in order to avoid draining the vehicle's battery. Sensor data may also be collected only periodically from vehicles not in use, thereby further reducing the energy used in monitoring the vehicle environment.

At block 1010, the controller 204 may evaluate the sensor data based upon the search criteria to determine whether the sensor data meets the search criteria. The sensor data may be processed to identify matches with search criteria, such as vehicle identifying data or biometric data identifying a person of interest. For example, the controller 204 may evaluate image data to determine license plate numbers for other vehicles within the environment of the vehicle 108, which license plate numbers can then be compared against a license plate number indicated by the search criteria. Similarly, the controller 204 may evaluate image data, sound data, or radar data to determine biometric features of a pedestrian or other person within the vehicle environment. For example, the controller 204 may use image data to identify a driver of another nearby vehicle based upon facial features.

The sensor data may also be evaluated by the controller 204 to identify other nearby vehicles, equipment, or items within the vehicle environment. For example, the controller 204 may identify a nearby vehicle of the make, model, and color of the target vehicle of interest from the sensor data. As another example, bicycles or construction equipment may be identified from the sensor data. Animals may similarly be identified by the controller 204 from the sensor data, such as dangerous wild animals (e.g., bears or cougars) or missing domestic animals. To facilitate determining whether the sensor data meets the search requirements, the controller 204 may determine one or more intermediate items describing aspects of objects within the vehicle environment (e.g., license plate numbers, estimated vehicle types, estimated facial feature profiles, estimated heights and weights of persons, etc.). Such intermediate items may then be compared with the search criteria to determine whether the associated items meet the search criteria.

At block 1012, the controller 204 may determine whether the sensor data matches the search criteria. In some embodiments, this may include determining whether each of a plurality of intermediate information items meets one or more distinct criteria of the search criteria. For example, the controller 204 may determine whether a license plate number of a nearby vehicle determined from sensor data matches a license plate number of the search criteria. Similar determinations may be made for biometric data (e.g., facial features, height, weight, distinguishing features, etc.), vehicle descriptions (e.g., make, model, color, condition, etc.), equipment descriptions, or other types of criteria.

When the sensor data or intermediate information derived therefrom meets the search criteria (or a sufficient portion thereof), the controller 204 may generate and send a response message to the server 140 via the network 130 at block 1014. The response message may include the relevant sensor data or an indication or summary thereof. The response message may also include the location of the vehicle 108 and a time associated with the sensor data meeting the search criteria. Upon receiving response messages from one or more of the vehicles 108, the server 140 may implement an appropriate action based upon the information in the response message. Such action may include communicating the response message, sensor data, and/or other relevant information to a third-party server associated with a law enforcement agency or private security firm. In some embodiments, the server 140 may identify a nearby vehicle 108 (which may be a different vehicle than the one or more vehicles from which the response message was received) to follow a target vehicle or person of interest. Such action may include communicating a control message to the nearby vehicle 108 via the network 130 to cause the vehicle 108 to identify and follow the target vehicle or person of interest at a distance.

When the sensor data or intermediate information does not meet a sufficient portion of the search criteria, the controller 204 may determine whether to continue or discontinue the passive search at block 1016. The controller 204 may determine to discontinue the passive search after a duration of time, which may be included in the indication of the search criteria. The controller 204 may also determine to discontinue the passive search if the vehicle 108 leaves the search area, which may also be included in the indication of the search criteria. In some embodiments, the controller 204 may determine to discontinue the passive search when the vehicle 108 is parked and shut down at the end of a trip, ceasing operation for a period of time. In some embodiments, the controller 204 may also discontinue operation in response to receiving a search cancellation message from the server 140 via the network 130, which the server 140 may generate and communicate when sufficient response messages are received or after a predetermined period of time has elapsed.

Exemplary Methods of Determining Risk Using Telematics Data

As described herein, telematics data may be collected and used in monitoring, controlling, evaluating, and assessing risks associated with autonomous or semi-autonomous operation of a vehicle 108. In some embodiments, the Data Application installed on the mobile computing device 110 and/or on-board computer 114 may be used to collect and transmit data regarding vehicle operation. This data may include operating data regarding operation of the vehicle 108, autonomous operation feature settings or configurations, sensor data (including location data), data regarding the type or condition of the sensors 120, telematics data regarding vehicle regarding operation of the vehicle 108, environmental data regarding the environment in which the vehicle 108 is operating (e.g., weather, road, traffic, construction, or other conditions). Such data may be transmitted from the vehicle 108 or the mobile computing device 110 via radio links 183 (and/or via the network 130) to the server 140. The server 140 may receive the data directly or indirectly (i.e., via a wired or wireless link 183 e to the network 130) from one or more vehicles 182 or mobile computing devices 184. Upon receiving the data, the server 140 may process the data to determine one or more risk levels associated with the vehicle 108.

In some embodiments, a plurality of risk levels associated with operation of the vehicle 108 may be determined based upon the received data, using methods similar to those discussed elsewhere herein, and a total risk level associated with the vehicle 108 may be determined based upon the plurality of risk levels. In other embodiments, the server 140 may directly determine a total risk level based upon the received data. Such risk levels may be used for vehicle navigation, vehicle control, control hand-offs between the vehicle and driver, settings adjustments, driver alerts, accident avoidance, insurance policy generation or adjustment, and/or other processes as described elsewhere herein.

In some aspects, computer-implemented methods for monitoring the use of a vehicle 108 having one or more autonomous operation features and/or adjusting an insurance policy associated with the vehicle 108 may be provided. Such methods may comprise the following, with the customer's permission or affirmative consent: (1) collecting sensor data regarding operation of the vehicle 108 from one or more sensors 120 of a mobile computing device 110 and/or otherwise disposed within the vehicle 108; (2) determining telematics data regarding operation of the vehicle 108 based upon the collected sensor data by the mobile computing device 110 and/or on-board computer 114; (3) determining feature use levels indicating usage of the one or more autonomous operation features during operation of the vehicle 108 by an on-board computer of the vehicle 114; (4) receiving the determined feature use levels from the on-board computer 114 at the mobile computing device 110; (5) transmitting information including the telematics data and the feature use levels from the mobile computing device 114 and/or a communication component 122 of the vehicle 108 to a remote server 140 via a radio link 183 or wireless communication channel; (6) receiving the telematics data and the feature use levels at one or more processors of the remote server 140; and/or (7) determining a total risk level associated with operation of the vehicle 108 based at least in part upon the received telematics data and feature use levels by one or more processors of the remote server 140. The remote server 140 may receive the information through a communication network 130 that includes both wired and wireless communication links 183.

In some embodiments, the mobile computing device 110 and/or on-board computer 114 may have a Data Application installed thereon, as described above. Such Data Application may be executed by one or more processors of the mobile computing device110 and/or on-board computer 114 to, with the customer's permission or affirmative consent, collect the sensor data, determine the telematics data, receive the feature use levels, and transmit the information to the remote server 140. The Data Application may similarly perform or cause to be performed any other functions or operations described herein as being controlled by the mobile computing device 110 and/or on-board computer 114.

The telematics data may include data regarding one or more of the following regarding the vehicle 108: acceleration, braking, speed, heading, and/or location. The telematics data may further include information regarding one or more of the following: time of day of vehicle operation, road conditions in a vehicle environment in which the vehicle is operating, weather conditions in the vehicle environment, and/or traffic conditions in the vehicle environment. In some embodiments, the one or more sensors 120 of the mobile computing device 110 may include one or more of the following sensors disposed within the mobile computing device 110: an accelerometer array, a camera, a microphone, and/or a geolocation unit (e.g., a GPS receiver). In further embodiments, one or more of the sensors 120 may be communicatively connected to the mobile computing device 110 (such as through a wireless communication link).

The feature use levels may be received by the mobile computing device 110 from the on-board computer 114 via yet another radio link 183 between the mobile computing device 110 and the on-board computer 114, such as link 116. The feature use levels may include data indicating adjustable settings for at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features. Such adjustable settings may affect operation of the at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features in controlling an aspect of vehicle operation, as described elsewhere herein.

In some embodiments, the method may further including receiving environmental information regarding the vehicle's environment at the mobile computing device 110 and/or on-board computer 114 via another radio link 183 or wireless communication channel. Such environmental information may also be transmitted to the remote server 140 via the radio link 183 and may be used by the remote server 140 in determining the total risk level. In some embodiments, the remote server 140 may receive part or all of the environmental information through the network 130 from sources other than the mobile computing device 110 and/or on-board computer 114. Such sources may include third-party data sources, such as weather or traffic information services. The environmental data may include one or more of the following: road conditions, weather conditions, nearby traffic conditions, type of road, construction conditions, location of pedestrians, movement of pedestrians, movement of other obstacles, signs, traffic signals, or availability of autonomous communications from external sources. The environmental data may similarly include any other data regarding a vehicle environment described elsewhere herein.

In further embodiments, the method may include collecting addition telematics data and/or information regarding feature use levels at a plurality of additional mobile computing devices 184 associated with a plurality of additional vehicles 182. Such additional telematics data and/or information regarding feature use levels may be transmitted from the plurality of additional mobile computing devices 184 to the remote server 140 via a plurality of radio links 183 and receive at one or more processors of the remote server 140. The remote server 140 may further base the determination of the total risk level at least in part upon the additional telematics data and/or feature use levels.

Some embodiments of the methods described herein may include determining, adjusting, generating, rating, or otherwise performing actions necessary for creating or updating an insurance policy associated with the vehicle 108. Thus, the remote server 140 may receive a request for a quote of a premium associated with a vehicle insurance policy associated with the vehicle 108. Such request may be transmitted via the network 130 from the mobile computing device 110 or another computing device associated with an insurance customer. Alternatively, such request may be generated upon the occurrence of an event, such as the passage of time or a change in a risk level associated with operation of the vehicle 108. In some embodiments, a routine executing on the sever 140 may generate the request based upon the occurrence of an event. Upon receiving such request, the remote server 140 may determine a premium associated with the vehicle insurance policy based at least in part upon the total risk level. An option to purchase the vehicle insurance policy may be presented to a customer associated with the vehicle 108, or information regarding an (actual or predicted) adjustment to an insurance policy may be presented to the customer. For example, the server 140 may cause a predicted change to an insurance policy (e.g., an increase or decrease in a premium) to be presented to the vehicle operator, such as when the vehicle operator is adjusting autonomous operation feature settings. The remote server 140 may alternatively, or additionally, provide information regarding the premium, coverage levels, costs, discounts, rates, or similar information associated with the insurance policy to be presented to the customer for review and/or approval by the mobile computing device 110 or another computing device associated with the customer.

Risk Assessment

The present embodiments may relate to risk assessment and insurance premium calculation. Autonomous software data may be analyzed to measure the risks of transitioning between human and vehicle as the driver (which may vary by driving environment, e.g., transitioning on the highway, when approaching construction, when exiting the highway, when the driver becomes impaired, and when the driver becomes distracted). Accidents related to the transition of control between the driver and the vehicle may become a common cause of accidents for autonomous vehicles. An insurance provider may be able to provide users information about instances when the user resumed control too late, or disengaged too soon, in order to help users transfer control more safely and reduce the risk of future accidents. Insurance provider remote servers may also be able to notify users of instances in which they themselves or other human drivers have activated autonomous driving features in driving environments for which the technology was not intended, such as using autonomous highway driving features on narrow country roads when intended for use only on divided highways.

An assessment may be performed that compares a vehicle's autonomous capabilities against how drivers are using the features. The present embodiments may be configured to measure when an autonomous vehicle is in control, when the driver is in control, neither, or both. The times when both the driver and the vehicle have partial or joint control may also be determined and measured. These times may present higher risk, and an appropriate auto insurance premium may be higher based upon the number of instances of partial or joint control (or partial lack of control), i.e. the frequency of control transitions. Based upon how the autonomous vehicle software handles these partial or joint control situations, premiums or discounts may be adjusted accordingly based upon risk.

The present embodiments may also be associated with unit-based costs (e.g., per-mile or per-minute premiums) that may only charge for non-autonomous driving or charge a flat fee plus non-autonomous driving factor or fee. For instance, a vehicle manufacturer's policy may cover autonomous driving liability, and manual driving liability for individual customers may be covered via a personal liability policy. It is noted that a personal liability policy may have a lower premium because of commercial policy coverage. An insurance policy may be used to define autonomous driving. Autonomous vehicle data may be analyzed to determine liability for individual claims. Data, such as sensor or system data, may include whether a customer performed required maintenance, and/or met responsibilities defined by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Insurance policies may state that if a loss is not covered by the OEM, the insurance provider policy will cover the loss (i.e., the insurance provider provides “gap” coverage). Also, a commercial may cover the OEM, software developer, and/or hardware developer only when vehicle is operating in autonomous mode policy (e.g., product liability). Autonomous vehicle data may be analyzed to determine liability for a claim, including whether a customer performed required maintenance, met responsibilities defined by OEM, and/or what components were involved in leading to or causing a vehicle collision. Insurance premiums for product liability for an autonomous system may only be charged to the customer when the autonomous system is used. For instance, a supplier that sells adaptive cruise control systems or technology may only be charged for product liability when the adaptive cruise control systems or technology are being used—similar to usage-based insurance, whether usage is measured by miles or operational time. The present embodiments may also provide non-insurance based uses. Road coverage maps may be developed or generated for various autonomous vehicle software programs. Users may be able to view which autonomous vehicles work in their city, and/or for their typical daily commute. Autonomous vehicles may also be used to scan license plates for police alerts, stolen vehicles, etc.

Autonomous Vehicle Insurance

The disclosure herein relates in part to insurance policies for vehicles with autonomous operation features. Accordingly, as used herein, the term “vehicle” may refer to any of a number of motorized transportation devices. A vehicle may be a car, truck, bus, train, boat, plane, motorcycle, snowmobile, other personal transport devices, etc. Also as used herein, an “autonomous operation feature” of a vehicle means a hardware or software component or system operating within the vehicle to control an aspect of vehicle operation without direct input from a vehicle operator once the autonomous operation feature is enabled or engaged. Autonomous operation features may include semi-autonomous operation features configured to control a part of the operation of the vehicle while the vehicle operator controls other aspects of the operation of the vehicle.

The term “autonomous vehicle” means a vehicle including at least one autonomous operation feature, including semi-autonomous vehicles. A “fully autonomous vehicle” means a vehicle with one or more autonomous operation features capable of operating the vehicle in the absence of or without operating input from a vehicle operator. Operating input from a vehicle operator excludes selection of a destination or selection of settings relating to the one or more autonomous operation features. Autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles and operation features may be classified using the five degrees of automation described by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's. An “electric vehicle” means a vehicle using stored electrical energy to generate motive force to propel the vehicle using an electric motor. An “autonomous electric vehicle” means an autonomous vehicle that is also an electric vehicle.

Additionally, the term “insurance policy” or “vehicle insurance policy,” as used herein, generally refers to a contract between an insurer and an insured. In exchange for payments from the insured, the insurer pays for damages to the insured which are caused by covered perils, acts, or events as specified by the language of the insurance policy. The payments from the insured are generally referred to as “premiums,” and typically are paid by or on behalf of the insured upon purchase of the insurance policy or over time at periodic intervals. Although insurance policy premiums are typically associated with an insurance policy covering a specified period of time, they may likewise be associated with other measures of a duration of an insurance policy, such as a specified distance traveled or a specified number of trips. The amount of the damages payment is generally referred to as a “coverage amount” or a “face amount” of the insurance policy. An insurance policy may remain (or have a status or state of) “in-force” while premium payments are made during the term or length of coverage of the policy as indicated in the policy. An insurance policy may “lapse” (or have a status or state of “lapsed”), for example, when the parameters of the insurance policy have expired, when premium payments are not being paid, when a cash value of a policy falls below an amount specified in the policy, or if the insured or the insurer cancels the policy.

The terms “insurer,” “insuring party,” and “insurance provider” are used interchangeably herein to generally refer to a party or entity (e.g., a business or other organizational entity) that provides insurance products, e.g., by offering and issuing insurance policies. Typically, but not necessarily, an insurance provider may be an insurance company. The terms “insured,” “insured party,” “policyholder,” and “customer” are used interchangeably herein to refer to a person, party, or entity (e.g., a business or other organizational entity) that is covered by the insurance policy, e.g., whose insured article or entity is covered by the policy. Typically, a person or customer (or an agent of the person or customer) of an insurance provider fills out an application for an insurance policy. In some cases, the data for an application may be automatically determined or already associated with a potential customer. The application may undergo underwriting to assess the eligibility of the party and/or desired insured article or entity to be covered by the insurance policy, and, in some cases, to determine any specific terms or conditions that are to be associated with the insurance policy, e.g., amount of the premium, riders or exclusions, waivers, and the like. Upon approval by underwriting, acceptance of the applicant to the terms or conditions, and payment of the initial premium, the insurance policy may be in-force, (i.e., the policyholder is enrolled).

Although the exemplary embodiments discussed herein relate to automobile insurance policies, it should be appreciated that an insurance provider may offer or provide one or more different types of insurance policies. Other types of insurance policies may include, for example, commercial automobile insurance, inland marine and mobile property insurance, ocean marine insurance, boat insurance, motorcycle insurance, farm vehicle insurance, aircraft or aviation insurance, and other types of insurance products.

Some embodiments described herein may relate to assessing and pricing insurance based upon autonomous (or semi-autonomous) operation of the vehicle 108. Risk levels and/or insurance policies may be assessed, generated, or revised based upon the use of autonomous operation features or the availability of autonomous operation features in the vehicle 108. Additionally, risk levels and/or insurance policies may be assessed, generated, or revised based upon the effectiveness or operating status of the autonomous operation features (i.e., degree to which the features are operating as intended or are impaired, damaged, or otherwise prevented from full and ordinary operation), location (e.g., general areas, types of areas, or specific road segments) or duration (e.g., distance, time duration of operation, time of day, continuous operation, etc.) of autonomous operation feature use, whether recommendations for appropriate feature use or optimal routes are followed, or other information associated with the methods described herein. In particular, compliance, noncompliance, or degree of compliance with recommendations or requirements of allowable or optimal routes (including degree of manual or autonomous operation along portions of such routes) may be used to determine discounts, surcharges, fees, premiums, etc. Thus, information regarding the capabilities or effectiveness of the autonomous operation features available to be used or actually used in operation of the vehicle 108 may be used in risk assessment and insurance policy determinations.

Insurance providers currently develop a set of rating factors based upon the make, model, and model year of a vehicle. Models with better loss experience receive lower factors, and thus lower rates. One reason that this current rating system cannot be used to assess risk for vehicles using autonomous technologies is that many autonomous operation features vary for the same vehicle model. For example, two vehicles of the same model may have different hardware features for automatic braking, different computer instructions for automatic steering, and/or different artificial intelligence system versions. The current make and model rating may also not account for the extent to which another “driver,” in this case the vehicle itself, is controlling the vehicle. The present embodiments may assess and price insurance risks at least in part based upon autonomous operation features that replace actions of the driver. In a way, the vehicle-related computer instructions and artificial intelligence may be viewed as a “driver.”

Insurance policies, including insurance premiums, discounts, and rewards, may be updated, adjusted, and/or determined based upon hardware or software functionality, and/or hardware or software upgrades, associated with autonomous operation features. Insurance policies, including insurance premiums, discounts, etc. may also be updated, adjusted, and/or determined based upon the amount of usage and/or the type(s) of the autonomous or semi-autonomous technology employed by the vehicle. In one embodiment, performance of autonomous driving software and/or sophistication of artificial intelligence utilized in the autonomous operation features may be analyzed for each vehicle. An automobile insurance premium may be determined by evaluating how effectively the vehicle may be able to avoid and/or mitigate crashes and/or the extent to which the driver's control of the vehicle is enhanced or replaced by the vehicle's software and artificial intelligence.

When pricing a vehicle with autonomous operation features, artificial intelligence capabilities, rather than human decision making, may be evaluated to determine the relative risk of the insurance policy. This evaluation may be conducted using multiple techniques. Autonomous operation feature technology may be assessed in a test environment, in which the ability of the artificial intelligence to detect and avoid potential crashes may be demonstrated experimentally. For example, this may include a vehicle's ability to detect a slow-moving vehicle ahead and/or automatically apply the brakes to prevent a collision. Additionally, actual loss experience of the software in question may be analyzed. Vehicles with superior artificial intelligence and crash avoidance capabilities may experience lower insurance losses in real driving situations. Results from both the test environment and/or actual insurance losses may be compared to the results of other autonomous software packages and/or vehicles lacking autonomous operation features to determine a relative risk levels or risk factors for one or more autonomous operation features. To determine such risk levels or factors, the control decisions generated by autonomous operation features may be assessed to determine the degree to which actual or shadow control decisions are expected to succeed in avoiding or mitigating vehicle accidents. This risk levels or factors may be applicable to other vehicles that utilize the same or similar autonomous operation features and may, in some embodiments, be applied to vehicle utilizing similar features (such as other software versions), which may require adjustment for differences between the features.

Emerging technology, such as new iterations of artificial intelligence systems or other autonomous operation features, may be priced by combining an individual test environment assessment with actual losses corresponding to vehicles with similar autonomous operation features. The entire vehicle software and artificial intelligence evaluation process may be conducted with respect to each of various autonomous operation features, including fully autonomous operation feature, semi-autonomous operation features, or vehicle-to-vehicle communications. A risk level or risk factor associated with the one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle could then be determined and applied when pricing insurance for the vehicle. In some embodiments, the driver's past loss experience and/or other driver risk characteristics may not be considered for fully autonomous vehicles, in which all driving decisions are made by the vehicle's artificial intelligence. Risks associated with the driver's operation of the vehicle may, however, be included in embodiments in which the driver controls some portion of vehicle operation in at least some circumstances.

In one embodiment, a separate portion of the automobile insurance premium may be based explicitly on the effectiveness of the autonomous operation features. The artificial intelligence pricing model may be combined with traditional methods for semi-autonomous vehicle operation. Insurance pricing for fully autonomous, or driverless, vehicles may be based upon an artificial intelligence model score by excluding traditional rating factors that measure risk presented by the drivers. Evaluation of vehicle software and/or artificial intelligence may be conducted on an aggregate basis or for specific combinations of autonomous operation features and/or driving factors.

An analysis of how the artificial intelligence of autonomous operation features facilitates avoiding accidents and/or mitigates the severity of accidents in order to build a database and/or model of risk assessment. After which, automobile insurance risk and/or premiums (as well as insurance discounts, rewards, and/or points) may be adjusted based upon autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle functionality, such as by individual autonomous operation features or groups thereof. In one aspect, an evaluation may be performed of how artificial intelligence, and the usage thereof, impacts automobile accidents and/or automobile insurance claims. Such analysis may be based upon data from a plurality of autonomous vehicles operating in ordinary use, or the analysis may be based upon tests performed upon autonomous vehicles and/or autonomous operation feature test units.

The types of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle-related functionality or technology implemented by various autonomous operation features may include or be related to the following: (a) fully autonomous (driverless); (b) limited driver control; (c) vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) wireless communication; (d) vehicle-to-infrastructure (and/or vice versa) wireless communication; (e) automatic or semi-automatic steering; (f) automatic or semi-automatic acceleration; (g) automatic or semi-automatic braking; (h) automatic or semi-automatic blind spot monitoring; (i) automatic or semi-automatic collision warning; (j) adaptive cruise control; (k) automatic or semi-automatic parking/parking assistance; (1) automatic or semi-automatic collision preparation (windows roll up, seat adjusts upright, brakes pre-charge, etc.); (m) driver acuity/alertness monitoring; (n) pedestrian detection; (o) autonomous or semi-autonomous backup systems; (p) road mapping systems; (q) software security and anti-hacking measures; (r) theft prevention/automatic return; (s) automatic or semi-automatic driving without occupants; and/or other functionality.

The adjustments to automobile insurance rates or premiums based upon the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle-related functionality or technology may take into account the impact of such functionality or technology on the likelihood of a vehicle accident or collision occurring or upon the likely severity of such accident or collision. For instance, a processor may analyze historical accident information and/or test data involving vehicles having autonomous or semi-autonomous functionality. Factors that may be analyzed and/or accounted for that are related to insurance risk, accident information, or test data may include the following: (1) point of impact; (2) type of road; (3) time of day; (4) weather conditions; (5) road construction; (6) type/length of trip; (7) vehicle style; (8) level of pedestrian traffic; (9) level of vehicle congestion; (10) atypical situations (such as manual traffic signaling); (11) availability of internet connection for the vehicle; and/or other factors. These types of factors may also be weighted according to historical accident information, predicted accidents, vehicle trends, test data, and/or other considerations.

Automobile insurance premiums, rates, discounts, rewards, refunds, points, etc. may be adjusted based upon the percentage of time or vehicle usage that the vehicle is the driver, i.e., the amount of time a specific driver uses each type of autonomous operation feature. In other words, insurance premiums, discounts, rewards, etc. may be adjusted based upon the percentage of vehicle usage during which the autonomous or semi-autonomous functionality is in use. For example, automobile insurance risks, premiums, discounts, etc. for an automobile having one or more autonomous operation features may be adjusted and/or set based upon the percentage of vehicle usage that the one or more individual autonomous operation features are in use, which may include an assessment of settings used for the autonomous operation features. In some embodiments, such automobile insurance risks, premiums, discounts, etc. may be further set or adjusted based upon availability, use, or quality of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) wireless communication to a nearby vehicle also employing the same or other type(s) of autonomous communication features.

Insurance premiums, rates, ratings, discounts, rewards, special offers, points, programs, refunds, claims, claim amounts, etc. may be adjusted for, or may otherwise take into account, the foregoing functionalities, technologies, or aspects of the autonomous operation features of vehicles, as described elsewhere herein. For instance, insurance policies may be updated based upon autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle functionality; V2V wireless communication-based autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle functionality; and/or vehicle-to-infrastructure or infrastructure-to-vehicle wireless communication-based autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle functionality.

Machine Learning

Machine learning techniques have been developed that allow parametric or nonparametric statistical analysis of large quantities of data. Such machine learning techniques may be used to automatically identify relevant variables (i.e., variables having statistical significance or a sufficient degree of explanatory power) from data sets. This may include identifying relevant variables or estimating the effect of such variables that indicate actual observations in the data set. This may also include identifying latent variables not directly observed in the data, viz. variables inferred from the observed data points. In some embodiments, the methods and systems described herein may use machine learning techniques to identify and estimate the effects of observed or latent variables such as time of day, weather conditions, traffic congestion, interaction between autonomous operation features, or other such variables that influence the risks associated with autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle operation.

Some embodiments described herein may include automated machine learning to determine risk levels, identify relevant risk factors, optimize autonomous or semi-autonomous operation, optimize routes, determine autonomous operation feature effectiveness, predict user demand for a vehicle, determine vehicle operator or passenger illness or injury, evaluate sensor operating status, predict sensor failure, evaluate damage to a vehicle, predict repairs to a vehicle, predict risks associated with manual vehicle operation based upon the driver and environmental conditions, recommend optimal or preferred autonomous operation feature usage, estimate risk reduction or cost savings from feature usage changes, determine when autonomous operation features should be engaged or disengaged, determine whether a driver is prepared to resume control of some or all vehicle operations, and/or determine other events, conditions, risks, or actions as described elsewhere herein. Although the methods described elsewhere herein may not directly mention machine learning techniques, such methods may be read to include such machine learning for any determination or processing of data that may be accomplished using such techniques. In some embodiments, such machine-learning techniques may be implemented automatically upon occurrence of certain events or upon certain conditions being met. Use of machine learning techniques, as described herein, may begin with training a machine learning program, or such techniques may begin with a previously trained machine learning program.

A processor or a processing element may be trained using supervised or unsupervised machine learning, and the machine learning program may employ a neural network, which may be a convolutional neural network, a deep learning neural network, or a combined learning module or program that learns in two or more fields or areas of interest. Machine learning may involve identifying and recognizing patterns in existing data (such as autonomous vehicle system, feature, or sensor data, autonomous vehicle system control signal data, vehicle-mounted sensor data, mobile device sensor data, and/or telematics, image, or radar data) in order to facilitate making predictions for subsequent data (again, such as autonomous vehicle system, feature, or sensor data, autonomous vehicle system control signal data, vehicle-mounted sensor data, mobile device sensor data, and/or telematics, image, or radar data). Models may be created based upon example inputs of data in order to make valid and reliable predictions for novel inputs.

Additionally or alternatively, the machine learning programs may be trained by inputting sample data sets or certain data into the programs, such as autonomous system sensor and/or control signal data, and other data discuss herein. The machine learning programs may utilize deep learning algorithms are primarily focused on pattern recognition, and may be trained after processing multiple examples. The machine learning programs may include Bayesian program learning (BPL), voice recognition and synthesis, image or object recognition, optical character recognition, and/or natural language processing—either individually or in combination. The machine learning programs may also include natural language processing, semantic analysis, automatic reasoning, and/or machine learning.

In supervised machine learning, a processing element may be provided with example inputs and their associated outputs, and may seek to discover a general rule that maps inputs to outputs, so that when subsequent novel inputs are provided the processing element may, based upon the discovered rule, accurately predict the correct or a preferred output. In unsupervised machine learning, the processing element may be required to find its own structure in unlabeled example inputs. In one embodiment, machine learning techniques may be used to extract the control signals generated by the autonomous systems or sensors, and under what conditions those control signals were generated by the autonomous systems or sensors.

The machine learning programs may be trained with autonomous system data, autonomous sensor data, and/or vehicle-mounted or mobile device sensor data to identify actions taken by the autonomous vehicle before, during, and/or after vehicle collisions; identify who was behind the wheel of the vehicle (whether actively driving, or riding along as the autonomous vehicle autonomously drove); identify actions taken be the human driver and/or autonomous system, and under what (road, traffic, congestion, or weather) conditions those actions were directed by the autonomous vehicle or the human driver; identify damage (or the extent of damage) to insurable vehicles after an insurance-related event or vehicle collision; and/or generate proposed insurance claims for insured parties after an insurance-related event.

The machine learning programs may be trained with autonomous system data, autonomous vehicle sensor data, and/or vehicle-mounted or mobile device sensor data to identify preferred (or recommended) and actual control signals relating to or associated with, for example, whether to apply the brakes; how quickly to apply the brakes; an amount of force or pressure to apply the brakes; how much to increase or decrease speed; how quickly to increase or decrease speed; how quickly to accelerate or decelerate; how quickly to change lanes or exit; the speed to take while traversing an exit or on ramp; at what speed to approach a stop sign or light; how quickly to come to a complete stop; and/or how quickly to accelerate from a complete stop.

A processor or a processing element may be trained using supervised or unsupervised machine learning, and the machine learning program may employ a neural network, which may be a convolutional neural network, a deep learning neural network, or a combined learning module or program that learns in two or more fields or areas of interest. Machine learning may involve identifying and recognizing patterns in existing data in order to facilitate making predictions for subsequent data, such that the machine learning programs may be trained by inputting sample data sets or certain data into the programs, such as image, vehicle telematics, and/or intelligent home telematics data. The machine learning programs may include Bayesian program learning (BPL), voice recognition and synthesis, image or object recognition, optical character recognition, natural language processing, semantic analysis, and/or automatic reasoning. Models may be created based upon example inputs in order to make valid and reliable predictions for novel inputs.

Machine learning techniques may be used to extract the relevant personal and/or driving behavior-related information for drivers from vehicle-mounted, mobile device-mounted, and/or other sensor data, telematics data, image data, vehicle and GPS data, and/or other data. In one embodiment, a processing element may be trained by providing it with a large sample of conventional analog and/or digital, still and/or moving (i.e., video) image data, telematics data, and/or other data of drivers with known driving characteristics or driving risk profiles. Such information may include, for example, acceleration, cornering, speed, braking, and other driving characteristics and known risks associated with those characteristics. Based upon these analyses, the processing element may learn how to identify characteristics and patterns that may then be applied to analyzing sensor data, telematics data, image data, vehicle data, autonomous system data, GPS data, and/or other data of new drivers or insurance applicants. For example, the processing element may learn to determine the applicant's driving risk profile from telematics and image data of applicant's driving behavior, may learn to identify low risk or risk averse driving behavior by the applicant through vehicle operation, and/or may learn to determine such other information as the applicant's typical area of travel. In another embodiment, a processing element may be trained by providing it with a large sample of conventional analog and/or digital, still and/or moving (i.e., video) image data, and/or other data of roads with known defects/obstacles or of known obstacles. The road defects/obstacles may be include pot holes, detours, construction, pedestrians, parked vehicles, congestion, traffic, and the known obstacles may include pedestrians, vehicles, construction crews, animals (deer, moose, boars, etc.).

After training, machine learning programs (or information generated by such machine learning programs) may be used to evaluate additional data. Such data may be related to tests of new autonomous operation feature or versions thereof, actual operation of an autonomous vehicle, or other similar data to be analyzed or processed. The trained machine learning programs (or programs utilizing models, parameters, or other data produced through the training process) may then be used for determining, assessing, analyzing, predicting, estimating, evaluating, or otherwise processing new data not included in the training data. Such trained machine learning programs may, thus, be used to perform part or all of the analytical functions of the methods described elsewhere herein.

Other Matters

In some aspect, customers may opt-in to a rewards, loyalty, or other program. The customers may allow a remote server to collect sensor, telematics, vehicle, mobile device, and other types of data discussed herein. With customer permission or affirmative consent, the data collected may be analyzed to provide certain benefits to customers. For instance, insurance cost savings may be provided to lower risk or risk averse customers. Recommendations that lower risk or provide cost savings to customers may also be generated and provided to customers based upon data analysis. The other functionality discussed herein may also be provided to customers in return for them allowing collection and analysis of the types of data discussed herein.

Although the text herein sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legal scope of the invention is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment, as describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. One could implement numerous alternate embodiments, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.

It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined in this patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘______’ is hereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intent to limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication, beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not be interpreted to be limited in scope based upon any statement made in any section of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To the extent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this disclosure is referred to in this disclosure in a manner consistent with a single meaning, that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader, and it is not intended that such claim term be limited, by implication or otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element is defined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recital of any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim element be interpreted based upon the application of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f).

Throughout this specification, plural instances may implement components, operations, or structures described as a single instance. Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustrated and described as separate operations, one or more of the individual operations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that the operations be performed in the order illustrated. Structures and functionality presented as separate components in example configurations may be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly, structures and functionality presented as a single component may be implemented as separate components. These and other variations, modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of the subject matter herein.

Additionally, certain embodiments are described herein as including logic or a number of routines, subroutines, applications, or instructions. These may constitute either software (code embodied on a non-transitory, tangible machine-readable medium) or hardware. In hardware, the routines, etc., are tangible units capable of performing certain operations and may be configured or arranged in a certain manner. In example embodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone, client or server computer system) or one or more hardware modules of a computer system (e.g., a processor or a group of processors) may be configured by software (e.g., an application or application portion) as a hardware module that operates to perform certain operations as described herein.

In various embodiments, a hardware module may be implemented mechanically or electronically. For example, a hardware module may comprise dedicated circuitry or logic that is permanently configured (e.g., as a special-purpose processor, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to perform certain operations. A hardware module may also comprise programmable logic or circuitry (e.g., as encompassed within a general-purpose processor or other programmable processor) that is temporarily configured by software to perform certain operations. It will be appreciated that the decision to implement a hardware module mechanically, in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or in temporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) may be driven by cost and time considerations.

Accordingly, the term “hardware module” should be understood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner or to perform certain operations described herein. Considering embodiments in which hardware modules are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed), each of the hardware modules need not be configured or instantiated at any one instance in time. For example, where the hardware modules comprise a general-purpose processor configured using software, the general-purpose processor may be configured as respective different hardware modules at different times. Software may accordingly configure a processor, for example, to constitute a particular hardware module at one instance of time and to constitute a different hardware module at a different instance of time.

Hardware modules can provide information to, and receive information from, other hardware modules. Accordingly, the described hardware modules may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Where multiple of such hardware modules exist contemporaneously, communications may be achieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuits and buses) that connect the hardware modules. In embodiments in which multiple hardware modules are configured or instantiated at different times, communications between such hardware modules may be achieved, for example, through the storage and retrieval of information in memory structures to which the multiple hardware modules have access. For example, one hardware module may perform an operation and store the output of that operation in a memory device to which it is communicatively coupled. A further hardware module may then, at a later time, access the memory device to retrieve and process the stored output. Hardware modules may also initiate communications with input or output devices, and can operate on a resource (e.g., a collection of information).

The various operations of example methods described herein may be performed, at least partially, by one or more processors that are temporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured to perform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanently configured, such processors may constitute processor-implemented modules that operate to perform one or more operations or functions. The modules referred to herein may, in some example embodiments, comprise processor-implemented modules.

Similarly, the methods or routines described herein may be at least partially processor-implemented. For example, at least some of the operations of a method may be performed by one or more processors or processor-implemented hardware modules. The performance of certain of the operations may be distributed among the one or more processors, not only residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number of machines. In some example embodiments, the processor or processors may be located in a single location (e.g., within a home environment, an office environment or as a server farm), while in other embodiments the processors may be distributed across a number of locations.

The performance of certain of the operations may be distributed among the one or more processors, not only residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number of machines. In some example embodiments, the one or more processors or processor-implemented modules may be located in a single geographic location (e.g., within a home environment, an office environment, or a server farm). In other example embodiments, the one or more processors or processor-implemented modules may be distributed across a number of geographic locations.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using words such as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,” “presenting,” “displaying,” or the like may refer to actions or processes of a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transforms data represented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical) quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or other machine components that receive, store, transmit, or display information.

As used herein any reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and “connected” along with their derivatives. For example, some embodiments may be described using the term “coupled” to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact. The term “coupled,” however, may also mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary, “or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example, a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true (or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (or present).

In addition, use of the “a” or “an” are employed to describe elements and components of the embodiments herein. This is done merely for convenience and to give a general sense of the description. This description, and the claims that follow, should be read to include one or at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meant otherwise.

This detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment, as describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. One could implement numerous alternate embodiments, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this application.

Upon reading this disclosure, those of skill in the art will appreciate still additional alternative structural and functional designs for system and a method for assigning mobile device data to a vehicle through the disclosed principles herein. Thus, while particular embodiments and applications have been illustrated and described, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are not limited to the precise construction and components disclosed herein. Various modifications, changes and variations, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art, may be made in the arrangement, operation and details of the method and apparatus disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope defined in the appended claims.

The particular features, structures, or characteristics of any specific embodiment may be combined in any suitable manner and in any suitable combination with one or more other embodiments, including the use of selected features without corresponding use of other features. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular application, situation or material to the essential scope and spirit of the present invention. It is to be understood that other variations and modifications of the embodiments of the present invention described and illustrated herein are possible in light of the teachings herein and are to be considered part of the spirit and scope of the present invention.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been described, it should be understood that the invention is not so limited and modifications may be made without departing from the invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims, and all devices that come within the meaning of the claims, either literally or by equivalence, are intended to be embraced therein.

It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understood that it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that are intended to define the spirit and scope of this invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for automatically refueling or recharging an autonomous vehicle, comprising: detecting, by one or more processors, a status of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the status is one of either in use or not in use; determining, by the one or more processors, a fuel level of one or more fuel tanks is below a maximum fuel threshold or a charge level of a battery of the autonomous vehicle is below a maximum charge threshold; controlling, by the one or more processors, the autonomous vehicle to travel fully autonomously to a determined location at a determined time based upon (i) the status and (ii) the determination that the fuel level is below the maximum fuel threshold or the charge level is below the maximum charge threshold; causing, by the one or more processors, one or more of a fuel tank or a battery of the autonomous vehicle to be fully or partially filled or charged at the location; and controlling, by the one or more processors, the autonomous vehicle to travel fully autonomously to a return location.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the one or more processors, the status is not in use by (i) detecting the autonomous vehicle is shut down, (ii) detecting the autonomous vehicle is parked, (iii) determining the autonomous vehicle has been designated to park at a location, (iv) detecting a drop off of passengers, (v) determining the autonomous vehicle is proceeding to a parking location, or (vi) any combination thereof.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the one or more processors, the status is in use by (i) detecting the autonomous vehicle is not shut down, (ii) detecting the autonomous vehicle is not parked, (iii) determining the autonomous vehicle has not been designated to park at a location, (iv) determining the autonomous vehicle is not proceeding to a parking location, (v) detecting that a destination has been designated for the autonomous vehicle to travel to fully automatically, or (vi) any combination thereof.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, determining, by the one or more processors, a sufficient time exists to refuel or recharge the autonomous vehicle before a next predicted use of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the next predicted use is based upon a predicted use profile of the autonomous vehicle, and wherein controlling the autonomous vehicle to travel fully autonomously to the determined location at the determined time is further based upon determining a sufficient time exists to refuel or recharge the autonomous vehicle before a next predicted use of the autonomous vehicle.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the one or more processors, a sufficient time does not exist to refuel or recharge the autonomous vehicle before a next predicted use of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the next predicted use is based upon a predicted use profile of the autonomous vehicle; and determining, by the one or more processors, the fuel level is below a minimum fuel threshold or the charge level is below a minimum charge threshold.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the minimum fuel threshold or the minimum charge threshold has been previously set by an operator of the autonomous vehicle.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, by the one or more processors, a message to the determined location to fuel the fuel tank or charge the battery of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the determined location is a refueling station or a recharging station; and causing, by the one or more processors, the autonomous vehicle to connect to a refueling device or a recharging device.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the autonomous vehicle is connected to the recharging device via a wireless connection for electric vehicle recharging.
 9. A computer system for automatically refueling or recharging an autonomous vehicle, comprising: one or more processors; a non-transitory program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to: detect a status of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the status is one of either in use or not in use; determine a fuel level of one or more fuel tanks is below a maximum fuel threshold or a charge level of a battery of the autonomous vehicle is below a maximum charge threshold; control the autonomous vehicle to travel fully autonomously to a determined location at a determined time based upon (i) the status and (ii) the determination that the fuel level is below the maximum fuel threshold or the charge level is below the maximum charge threshold; cause one or more of a fuel tank or a battery of the autonomous vehicle to be fully or partially filled or charged at the location; and control the autonomous vehicle to travel fully autonomously to a return location.
 10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computer system to: determine the status is not in use by causing the computer system to (i) detect the autonomous vehicle is shut down, (ii) detect the autonomous vehicle is parked, (iii) determine the autonomous vehicle has been designated to park at a location, (iv) detect a drop off of passengers, (v) determine the autonomous vehicle is proceeding to a parking location, or (vi) any combination thereof.
 11. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computer system to: determine the status is in use by causing the computer system to (i) detect the autonomous vehicle is not shut down, (ii) detect the autonomous vehicle is not parked, (iii) determine the autonomous vehicle has not been designated to park at a location, (iv) determine the autonomous vehicle is not proceeding to a parking location, (v) detect that a destination has been designated for the autonomous vehicle to travel to fully automatically, or (vi) any combination thereof.
 12. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computer system to: determine a sufficient time exists to refuel or recharge the autonomous vehicle before a next predicted use of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the next predicted use is based upon a predicted use profile of the autonomous vehicle, and wherein controlling the autonomous vehicle to travel fully autonomously to the determined location at the determined time is further based upon determining a sufficient time exists to refuel or recharge the autonomous vehicle before a next predicted use of the autonomous vehicle.
 13. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computer system to: determine a sufficient time does not exist to refuel or recharge the autonomous vehicle before a next predicted use of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the next predicted use is based upon a predicted use profile of the autonomous vehicle; and determine the fuel level is below a minimum fuel threshold or the charge level is below a minimum charge threshold, wherein the minimum fuel threshold or the minimum charge threshold has been previously set by an operator of the autonomous vehicle.
 14. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computer system to: transmit a message to the determined location to fuel the fuel tank or charge the battery of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the determined location is a refueling station or a recharging station; and cause the autonomous vehicle to connect to a refueling device or a recharging device.
 15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the autonomous vehicle is connected to the recharging device via a wireless connection for electric vehicle recharging.
 16. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions for automatically refueling or recharging an autonomous vehicle, that when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to: detect a status of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the status is one of either in use or not in use; determine a fuel level of one or more fuel tanks is below a maximum fuel threshold or a charge level of a battery of the autonomous vehicle is below a maximum charge threshold; control the autonomous vehicle to travel fully autonomously to a determined location at a determined time based upon (i) the status and (ii) the determination that the fuel level is below the maximum fuel threshold or the charge level is below the maximum charge threshold; cause one or more of a fuel tank or a battery of the autonomous vehicle to be fully or partially filled or charged at the location; and control the autonomous vehicle to travel fully autonomously to a return location.
 17. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computer system to: determine the status by causing the computer system to (i) detect whether the autonomous vehicle is shut down, (ii) detect whether the autonomous vehicle is parked, (iii) determine whether the autonomous vehicle has been designated to park at a location, (iv) detect a drop off of passengers, (v) determine the autonomous vehicle is proceeding to a parking location, (vi) detect that a destination has been designated for the autonomous vehicle to travel to fully automatically, or (vii) any combination thereof.
 18. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computer system to, determine a sufficient time exists to refuel or recharge the autonomous vehicle before a next predicted use of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the next predicted use is based upon a predicted use profile of the autonomous vehicle, and wherein controlling the autonomous vehicle to travel fully autonomously to the determined location at the determined time is further based upon determining a sufficient time exists to refuel or recharge the autonomous vehicle before a next predicted use of the autonomous vehicle.
 19. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computer system to: determine a sufficient time does not exist to refuel or recharge the autonomous vehicle before a next predicted use of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the next predicted use is based upon a predicted use profile of the autonomous vehicle; and determine the fuel level is below a minimum fuel threshold or the charge level is below a minimum charge threshold, wherein the minimum fuel threshold or the minimum charge threshold has been previously set by an operator of the autonomous vehicle.
 20. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computer system to: transmit a message to the determined location to charge the battery of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the determined location is a recharging station; and cause the autonomous vehicle to connect to a recharging device, wherein the autonomous vehicle is connected to the recharging device via a wireless connection for electric vehicle recharging. 